City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 2-2014 Acts of Belonging: Perceptions of Citizenship Among Queer Turkish Women in Germany Ilgin Yorukoglu Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/133 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Acts of Belonging:! Perceptions of Citizenship Among Queer! Turkish Women in Germany ! ! ! ! Ilgin Yorukoglu! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Sociology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2014 "i ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! © 2014 ! ILGIN YORUKOGLU! ! All Rights Reserved ! "ii ! This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Sociology in satisfaction ! of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ! ! ! ! Lynn Chancer ! ! Chair of Examining Committee ! ! ! Phil Kasinitz ! Executive Officer ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Lynn Chancer ! William Kornblum ! Patricia Clough ! Supervisory Committee ! ! The City University of New York "iii ! Abstract ! Acts of Belonging: ! Perceptions of Citizenship Among Queer Turkish Women in Germany ! Ilgin Yorukoglu! ! ! Advisor: Professor Lynn Chancer ! ! This thesis examines how people who have multiple identifications develop a sense of belonging. It focuses on those with politicized, romanticized, and stigmatized identifications which are assumed to be in conflict with one another. My particular case is that of “queer” women of Turkish descent in Germany with Berlin as my main study site. ! These people embody what is considered to be an oxymoron: being queer yet also Turkish, being a lesbian yet having a Muslim background, being of immigrant origin yet also German. In short, they are between all worlds and thus, seemingly, do not belong anywhere. Their ambiguous position allows my thesis to offer a critique of mainstream ideas about cohesion and social capital, noting that in this case, cohesion is not needed for my informants to develop a sense of belonging. From here, it develops the concept of what I call “acts of belonging.” This concept directs our attention away from the question of where belonging happens to the question of how: how do migrants belong to contexts, communities, societies to which the mainstream does not consider them to belong? What relieves them from the burdens their conflicting identifications might otherwise cause? Acts of belonging are the tools, the means, through which they relieve ! "iv this anxiety, even momentarily, and satisfy their individual need for belonging. Acts of belonging also points at the ways in which legal acceptance, in the form of citizenship or naturalization, differs from lived experiences of belonging. Finally, these acts reveal the ways in which people engage with diversity in various ways which are not always obvious to the reveal the ways in which people ! By looking simultaneously at psycho-social and emotional factors on the one hand and sexuality on the other, my research bridges various gaps in the literatures of queer studies, migration and citizenship, and social psychology. My work presents an alternative way to look through the lens of belonging at the relationship between cohesion and conflict. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! "v! ! !ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis scratches a very personal wound in the sense that these past few years meant a feeling of disorientation and anxiety. I was fortunate, however, to have those to remind me that the ground is still there, beneath my feet; and that sometimes one just needs to stop, take a breath, !feel the ground, in order to get back to the journey. I sincerely think that I would never have been able to finish my dissertation without my advisor, Lynn Chancer. She has been my own rock in this rocky path! She has not only been an inspiration, a true example of “sociological imagination”- with her thoughtful, kind and generous !personality, she has also been a role model, someone whom I could only aspire to be like. I have been so fortunate that the other two members of my committee have been Bill Kornblum and Patricia Clough- what else could I ask for? I am truly grateful to the Graduate Center of CUNY for giving me this opportunity to take classes and then work with these brilliant minds. Both Bill and Patricia have shown me “alternative” ways to be a sociologist. That there is not one way, and that one can, and must, be caring, thoughtful, and kind, while always staying !critical. I was privileged for getting to know Engin Isin, whose works on citizenship, as can be seen in the following pages, have been very influential. I have learnt much from his scholarship, but the !little time spent in New York with him was an inspiration that I will never forget. It was thanks to John Mollenkopf and his summer exchange program that I went to Berlin and was able to have introductory courses on urban and political developments of the city. John has always been very helpful throughout my fieldwork and afterwards- I am truly grateful. I am also thankful to DAAD, the German American Exchange Service, which partly financed my !fieldwork in Berlin. I would also like to thank my biological and my chosen family (they know who they are) for reminding me that we need to embrace anxiety, conflict, vulnerability, and accept that life is “more complex than that”. I am thankful to them for their love. My chosen family also includes Mati, my cat, who likes to pretend that it was I who rescued him, although we both know the !truth. Last but definitely not least, I am thankful to those beautiful people I have gotten to know while I was in Berlin, Germany. Some I interviewed, some friended me during cold Berlin days. I will be forever grateful not only for their friendship, but also for all I have learnt from them. I cherish !every single moment spent with those who make their own belongings. ! ! "vi ! ! !TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I Introduction 1 Historical, Political and Theoretical Background 2 Note on terminologies 14 !Methodology 20 Chapter II Cohesion: A Literature Review and R Reconception 30 Using the concept 32 Abusing the concept 46 !Conclusion 58 Chapter III “One has to belong, somehow”: Acts of belonging at the intersection of ethnicity, sexuality and citizenship 62 !Acts of Belonging: A Definition 73 Chapter IV Fahriye’s Story: Ethnicity, Trust, Belonging 98 “Gaining papers” as an act of belonging 100 !Trust: For “You can’t live like this!” 108 Chapter V Fatma’s story: Redefining One’s Self 112 Can a lack of a symbol signify integration? 120 Taking off the headscarf as an act of belonging 126 Chapter VI “The native informer” and the “Agro Migrant” : Distancing oneself as an act of belonging 131 Secil’s case 132 Distancing one’s self as an act of belonging 138 !Sefa’s case 140 Chapter VII !Conclusion 146 ! "vii! Bibliography 162 ! "viii List of Tables Table 1. Case study chapters 29 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Introduction ! "Depending on which part of Berlin I go to, in one I get punched in the mouth because I'm a foreigner, and in the other because I'm a queen"! 1 2 ! “Europe’s soul is tolerance. Europe is the continent of tolerance” How does a person with multiple identifications that are often politicized, romanticized and stigmatized, and which are assumed to be in conflict with one another, perceive the idea of belonging? What does belonging mean for an individual in a situation where resistance against one type of oppression such as sexism and heterosexism is transferred and transformed into essentializing statements about the characteristics of particular ethnic and national communities? Does the meaning of citizenship differ from lived experiences of belonging and, if so, in what ways? Taking “queer” women of Turkish descent as my main focus and using Berlin as my main site of sociological study, this thesis investigates the meaning of citizenship and belonging for an individual holding multiple identifications. I suggest that in considering a multi-dimension subject, conventional understandings of terms like citizenship, migration and integration are called into question. The subjects of this study pose a challenge to traditional understandings of citizenship and belonging because of the complexity of their situations. With multiple !1 Fatma Souad, quoted in Nicholas Kulish, “Gay Muslims party in Berlin, nervously”, 1/1/2008.http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/01/world/ europe/01iht-berlin.1.8969268.html access date: October 10, 2010 2! Angela Merkel, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, Germany 2007- Presidency of the European Union, 17 January 2007 http://www.eu2007.de/en/News/Speeches_Interviews/January/ Rede_Bundeskanzlerin2.html access date: September 2, 2008 ! "1 identifications that are treated by the larger society as in conflict with one another – and, for this reason, not necessarily internally ‘coherent’ – the women I study often defy stereotypes due to their overlapping and combined national, religious, sexual and legal identities. This complexity provides entrée into studying both particular case studies and developing general insights within this thesis about how coherence, belonging and the meaning of citizenship relate to each other. Historical, Political and Theoretical Background: European Ideas of ! Freedom and Multi-Culturalism In 1999 Germany, after long term reactions from the Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union parties3 , the German Parliament accepted that the principle of jus sanguinis (citizenship by descent) would be supplemented by jus soli (by birthplace) in the acquisition of citizenship (Hogwood 2000; Häussermann et. al 2005; Green 2001).