Michelle Lynn Kahn on Turkish migration to Germany

About this episode

Michelle Lynn Kahn discusses her book on Turkish migration to Germany and the experiences of Turkish-German individuals.

Michelle Lynn Kahn, associate professor of modern European history at the University of Richmond, on “Foreign in Two Homelands: Racism, Return Migration and Turkish-German History” (Cambridge University Press). Migration from Turkey largely started with West Germany’s “guest worker” scheme, introduced in 1961. Since the 1970s, Turks have been Germany’s largest ethnic minority and today there are around 3 million people with Turkish heritage in the country. Using sources in both countries and both languages, as well as in-depth conversations with former guest workers and their children, ”Foreign in Two Homelands” gives a kaleidoscopic overview of experiences on both sides. Uniquely, it also focuses on the experiences of migrants to Germany who returned to Turkey, many of whom ended up feeling socially alienated in both environments. Please support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon or Substack. Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, and links to articles related to each episode. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true Substack: https://turkeybooktalk.substack.com/

People in this episode

Host: William Armstrong

Guest: Michelle Lynn Kahn

Topics covered

• Turkish migration
• German history
• guest worker scheme
• ethnic minorities
• return migration

Keywords

• Turkish migration
• Germany
• guest workers
• ethnic minorities
• return migration
• social alienation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Richmond

Books & works: Foreign in Two Homelands: Racism, Return Migration and Turkish-German History

Places: Germany, Turkey

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