Abstract
This article critically discusses how Turkish migrants as an established migrant group have interpreted and acted on the arrival of Syrian refugees in Berlin from 2015 onwards and whether their responses have resulted in new spaces in which new contestations and/or solidarities emerge. To this end, it focuses on the processes and the ways in which established groups (re-)articulate their urban citizenship and belonging to a particular urban space in relation to newcomers. Building on the analytical framework of relational and agency-centered articulation of urban citizenship and drawing on research data collected in the Kreuzberg and Neukölln neighborhoods of Berlin, the analysis has two main findings. Firstly, Turkish migrants have been involved in solidarity activities and contribute to a more inclusive urban citizenship regarding Syrian refugees. At the same time, they perceive Syrian refugees as a threat to their standing in the city and their right to the usage of urban space. This results in a more defensive urban citizenship against the refugees. Secondly, the unequal power relations and local, national and transitional dynamics act as intervening factors shaping Turkish migrants' responses to Syrian refugees and the process of urban citizenship formation.
Highlights
Since the eruption of the Syrian war in 2011, over five million people have fled violence and sought asylum mainly in neighboring countries such as Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon
Using a relational and agency-centered approach to urban citizenship, this article shows that Turkish migrants, as an established group, rearticulated and contested their urban citizenship and claim-making practices relationally and hierarchically vis-à-vis newcomers, namely, Syrian refugees
In this remaking of urban citizenship, Turkish migrants’ spatial encounter with Syrian refugees and the ways in which the former responded to and acted on the arrival of the latter reveals the “multiplicity of urban citizenship(s), their variegated entitlements and the political process through which they are claimed,distributed, negotiated and secured” (Cohen/Margalit 2015: 670). Turkish migrants developed both inclusive and defensive urban citizenship discourses and practices against Syrian refugees, thereby showing the contested nature of urban citizenship-making constructed through a process of “shifting alliances and antagonisms between groupings” (Painter 2005: 12)
Summary
Since the eruption of the Syrian war in 2011, over five million people have fled violence and sought asylum mainly in neighboring countries such as Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. Created new spaces of contestation especially in areas related to the labor market, housing, education, and so on Against this backdrop, this article analyzes how the established Turkish migrant community has interpreted and responded to the arrival of Syrian refugees in Berlin and whether their responses have prompted new patterns and relations of contestation and/or solidarity.. The. Urban Citizenship and the Spatial Encounter between Turkish Migrants and Syrian Refugees in Berlin analysis elaborates further two different socio-spatial fields: spaces of solidarity and spaces of contestation. Unequal power relations and local, national and transnational dynamics act as crucial intervening factors shaping urban-citizenship-making practices of Turkish migrants and their responses to Syrian refugees
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