Göç Bağlamında Müzik ve Kimlik İlişkisi: Türk-Alman Genç Kadınlar Örneği

Abstract

Turkish citizens who went to Germany for work in the 1960s and 1970s attached themselves to the language and music of their home country to sustain their local or national belongings. In the context of 21st-century globalization, the second and third generation have different ties with Turkey. Despite the differences, music remains important in the identity processes of the German-Turkish youth who grew up under the influence of the cultures of two countries. This study analyzes the relationship between music and identity, in the context of migration, through the musical experiences of German-Turkish young women. This study aims to give a voice to a “muted” group and an unheard genre as compared to the existing literature on the German-Turkish youth, which especially focuses on young men and alternative music styles. For this purpose, a three-month ethnographic research was conducted among the classical Turkish music choirs of Berlin in 2009. The data show that different belongings play role in the transnational musical experiences of these women and there is a contestation between those belongings. When Turkishness and Germanness in the sense of religion, language and nation are considered, music indicates both an escape from the contestation of belongings and a source of these contestations.