Yaşlı Göçmenlerin Kentsel Mekân Pratikleri ve Sosyal Etkileşim Tercihleri: Almanya Örneği

Abstract

This article examines the urban spatial-use practices and social interactions carried out in these locales by first-generation migrants who migrated in their youth from Turkey to Germany as migrant workers or the subsequent family reunification migration and who live in the country of immigration. In-depth interviews were performed in Cologne, Berlin, and Frankfurt in 2016 in the scope of the research, which uses the qualitative research method of the phenomenological design. There are 18 participants in the study group. All the locations they used in the city have been included in the evaluation, from sports halls and ideological/religious/cultural associations to educational centers, community centers, and shopping mall cafes. The purpose of the research is to present a sociological evaluation of the data on the social groups with which older migrants meet in their daily life. According to the findings, one section of the study group only uses urban spaces that belong to their in-group. Although a vast majority use urban spaces in common with their out-group, they only carry out social activities in these spaces with the in-group. Limitations in communicating in German, insufficient secondary socialization and internalization of the common cultural objects that provide the basis for mutual communication, mutual prejudices, immigrants’ social position being defined as foreigners, and the impact of urban life on the possibilities of social interaction are included among the reasons for this situation.