Turkish Immigrants in Germany favor Social Integration and Religious Enhancement

Turkish immigrants living in Germany are more anxious to get integrated in the German society and also want to excel in their religious beliefs according to a recent study conducted by a local German organization called Info GmbH. The report that was released this Friday August 17^th, 2012 claims mostly the younger Turkish generation is eager to become more religious. The report contained several statistics based on researches on reactions of Muslim communities to different incidents occurring in Germany.

The study refers to one of the events in Germany, when a Salafist community in the country started distributing free Qurans. The act was negatively approached by politicians and the media in the country. Despite of this, according to the study, two third of the Turkish immigrants living in Germany said that they welcomed such free distribution and one third of them were willing to financially contribute to it.

Holger Liljeberg, the head of Info GmbH, said that it would be inappropriate to take the figures provided in the report as a sign of radicalization. Liljeberg said that the survey conducted on some 1,011 people of Turkish descent did show an increase in number of those individuals identifying themselves as holding strict religious views; it also presented elevating figures of those Turkish immigrants who were anxious to get integrated in the German society.

The latter case is of most interest as this happens despite of common racist remarks against people of Turkish descent in German societies. According to the survey, the number of racist assaults against Turks in Germany has decreased 13 percent since 2010; cases like this are still a 50 percent average for those Turks under the age of 30.

Yet the Turkish youth still eagerly wants to fit into this society. The report said that the figure of those Turks who want to absolutely integrate themselves in German societies increased 8 percent from 2010. On the whole 95 percent of those surveyed said that they would prefer to send their children to local day care centers so that they can learn German at an early age.

Now the report suggests that there exists a visible division between the Turkish immigrant’s community itself in Germany. For Instance, according to the study, 62 percent of the Turks prefer spending more time with people who share their ethnicity, as against the small figure of only 8 percent in favor of Turkish language elementary schools for their children. The number of those Turks who said that they intend on moving back to Turkey has risen from 42 percent to 45 percent since 2010. Also, those Turks calling Germany as their Homeland have also decreased 6 percent in numbers as compared to 2 years ago conducted survey.

The most common reason that the Turks give of returning back to their homeland is that they want to spend their retirement in the place where their forefathers belonged to, or that the weather in Turkey was better suitable for their conditions than here in Germany.

“The Study shows that there is an increasing focus on traditional and religious values,” Liljeberg said.

Those with Turkish backgrounds who are less than 30 years of age are the most that prefer to call Germany as their homeland. The same category was found by the study to be more involved in religious activities and desired that the number of Mosques in Germany to be increased.

In general, the purpose of the report seems to be somewhat racially directed itself. As the report’s embedded idea is to show that those who prefer living in Germany are most religious, Islamic to be exact, in nature, it can only depict the fact that the organization that issued it has reservations with the German integration of Muslim communities. All the same, the tendency of the German immigration authorities and the government with respect to its 4 million Muslim populations has been inconclusive throughout its rule. Reports like these only make matters more confusing for the local Muslims than better.

Tags: German immigration, integration in German societies, Muslim Communities in Germany, Muslim immigrants in Germany, Turkish Immigrants in Germany