Education, Social Embeddedness, and the Integration of the Turkish Community in Germany: An Analysis of Homeland Identity

Education serves many valuable social functions. Among these functions are the development of skills among students that can be used later in the labor market, the passing of societal history and culture from one generation to the next, and the inculcation of important societal norms and values so students have the opportunity of becoming knowledgeable participants in the larger social system. The education system is society's primary socializing agent in attempting to integrate children into the larger social system. In many societies, the effectiveness of education as a socializing agent has been an issue, especially in those social systems characterized by substantial diversity. One diversity issue that places a significant amount of stress on the socializing and integrating function of education is immigrant status. The case of the Turkish population in Germany provides an excellent opportunity to study the integration effects of education because they have a relatively recent history in Germany. In addition, data are available to see how well the Turkish population is embedded in the larger social system and explore the specific role played by the German educational system in their integration. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between education and one dimension of integration: homeland identity. The authors examine, at a very fundamental level, the role education has taken in integrating Turks in Germany. In examining this relationship, the authors look at one measure of integration (homeland identity) among a sample of Turks who were educated in Turkey or in Germany. Results from the analysis indicate that Turks are not well integrated, and such lack of full integration leads to some ambiguity about homeland identity, particularly among Turks educated in Germany. While there is a small likelihood that Turks educated in Germany will identify with Germany rather than Turkey, there is no consistent consensus or dependency among this group in their views. The latter finding suggests some variability in the hold the community has on Turkish homeland identity. (Contains 5 figures, 2 tables and 11 notes.)