Disintegration and violence among migrants in Germany: Turkish and Russian youths versus German youths

Abstract

Turkish and Russian immigrants are the two largest groups of immigrants in Germany, but there are some important differences regarding their legal status. Although most of the Turkish adolescents were born in Germany, few of them have German citizenship. In contrast, most of the Russian youths were born outside Germany, but they mostly possess German nationality because of their status as ethnic Germans. Despite these differences, both groups show a high level of violent behavior. This article investigates the causes for the different levels of violent behavior among juvenile Russian and Turkish immigrants in comparison to German youths. On the basis of a large-scale school survey with 14,301 respondents, the authors examine the causes for their high level of violent behavior compared to German adolescents. The theoretical basis is a combination of disintegration and socialization theory, as well as additional factors that are discussed as causes of violence in several theoretical approaches.In the empirical part of the article, the authors provide a systematic description of sources and levels of disintegration among the three youth groups. The empirical findings demonstrate that juvenile migrants are more disintegrated in several respects and that the higher level of disintegration explains some of the differences in violent behavior. But specific cultural orientations are also important in this context.