The Understanding of Democracy as a Measure of Integration: An Examination of the Change in Integration Discourse Around the Democracy Debate Based on the Case of the Turkish Diaspora in Germany

Abstract

This article discusses the intensified debate about people of Turkish origin in Germany in the context of speculations about deviating understandings of democracy among the Turkish diasporas. Based on the thesis that a change in German integration discourse from measurable material achievements of the migrant community to immaterial aspects of adaptation with regard to norms and values is taking place, an argument for a discourse-theoretical perception of this debate is developed, whereby existing forms of the negatively connoted foreign construction of the community of Turkish origin are discussed.