their - The University of Texas at Dallas

THE TRANSLATION OF THE CONCEPT OF “THE OTHERNESS” IN
MIGRANT LITERATURE
By Asalet Erten
A
t the beginning of 1960s, there was a migration
movement from Turkey to Western Europe, and
especially to Germany, in comparison to Holland,
France, Belgium, Spain, and Greece. The reason was
that there was a demand for manpower in Germany,
because it was industrialized. The migrants who
moved were primarily of rural origin, having different
habits, customs, and ways of speaking and thinking in
comparison to the Turks of urban origin. Thus,
migrating to Germany was a big adventure for these
people, because this was a totally different country
speaking a different language, having a different
religion, and obeying different customs and traditions.
Nevertheless, the migrant people had one aim: finding
a good job, earning enough money, saving it, and
returning home to start a new life with good living
conditions.
The migration continued, and the migrants who
moved to Germany in the 1970s were different from
the group mentioned above. Rather than workers,
these were educated young people coming from urban
areas. Their aims were similar to those of the previous
migrants. In addition to good jobs, they were in need
of better living conditions. In a technologically
developed country, they wanted to ımprove
themselves in their jobs.
There was another group who also migrated to
Germany. These were political refugees who wanted
to take shelter in a European country where they could
act freely and live the way they liked.
The three above-mentioved groups who migrated
to Germany were living in this country for
socioeconomic and political reasons. Coming from
different origins, it was not easy for them to adapt to a
country that they did not know. Though they were
trying to cope with life and conditions here, they had
become the “other” in the host country’s terms.
The “otherness,” in other words, meant that these
people were different in the culture of the country they
were living in. Their roots were in their own country,
but the host country they chose had become their
home country. İt was not easy to integrate into the
German community in a short time. So the migrants
began to feel marginalized, discriminated against,
and/or rejected. Nedret Kuran Burçoğlu points out that
this hurtful experience can be categorized into five
stages:
1. The confrontation with the other and the
other’s cultural environment
2. Formation/transformation of the image of
the other
3. Coming to terms with one’s own self
4. Drawing consequences out of this
experience
5. Formation of such feelings as
disillusionment, pain, suffering, rejection,
loneliness, nostalgia, anxiety, and guilt
(1997: 118).
Migrant Literature
This experience also consisted of the works of
literature the Turkish people were concerned with. So
a new kind of literature began to emerge and develop.
The migration had brought new writers into German
life and culture. İt was difficult even to define this
literature. Kuran Burçoğlu explains this literature in
the following manner:
As the majority of the migrants consisted of
workers, there had been a tendency at first to call the
newly emerging literatures Gastarbeiterliteratur
(literature by guest workers), which was later
considered as both misleading and humiliating and
was soon replaced by the two other designations
Ausländerliteratur or Migrantenliteratur. (1997: 117)
The migration movement had created a new
literature for the Germans. In fact, this new literature
reflected the bitter feelings of leaving the home
country behind on the one hand and feeling alienated,
isolated, and frustrated in a foreign country on the
other hand. Coming from a different language,
religion, roots, and culture, the Turkish people
continued to live as the “other.”
These people were not happy either in the
countries they left behind or in the foreign country
that they were living in. Not knowing where they
belonged, or the feeling of living between two
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