Abstract:

This study examines the identity problem for the workers that turned back to Turkey. Starting from 1960s, lots of workers migrated to European countries as a solution to the problem of unemployment in Turkey. The migrants brought their families with them and got accustomed to living abroad. However statistics prove that a group of migrants returned back to Turkey. Migrants had many problems after return. Turks in Turkey excluded them from the society, mainly because their dialect was different. Eventually, an identity problem emerged for the returned migrants and they experienced a confusion and ambiguity concerning their origin. Although, these migrants shared the same ethnic origin with people living in Turkey, they experienced difficulties in adapting to their national culture. It has been seen that the Turkish migrant identity, which refer to the identity of returned Turks who migrated to European Countries, is not exactly Turkish identity or European identity, but it carries features from both. This migrant identity is an ambivalent identity, constituted of some of factors; Turkish migrants feeling like belonging to nowhere, them having a desire to live in Europe, and them to keep having religious values and feelings different than both Turks in Turkey and people in host countries. Some of the migrants adapted themselves to other cultures, and their interest to their traditional cultures decreased. Consequently, the concept of nation carries a different meaning for the returned migrants. This study examines, why and how the returned migrants became the other in their own countries.

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