Turkish Torque    Tuesday, May 14, 2002

"Germanification" of Turkish-Americans

I’ve resorted to the above exaggerated title in order to draw attention to a relatively new phenomenon in the Turkish-American community: the profile of the Turkish immigrants to the United States has changed perceptibly within the last twenty years. 

The bulk of the Turks who immigrated to the U.S. since late 1950s and early 60s consisted of highly-educated professionals, doctors, engineers, university professors, accountants, finance professionals, managers and students.  But for the last twenty years or so we are also witnessing a new influx of a blue-collar group, some of them with no or very little education, and mostly employed in low-paying service sector. In that sense, these new arrivals resemble more the profile of the Turkish community in Germany in particular and Europe in general than the white-collar cross-section of the earlier arrivals to the United States.

A vivid profile of one such group was provided by Professor Kemal Karpat of University of Wisconsin (http://www.mesp.wisc.edu/faculty/karpat.htm) at a Turkish-American Grassroots & Leadership Conference held over the last weekend in Chicago, IL (and organized by the Assembly of Turkish American Associations http://www.ataa.org, and Turkish-American Cultural Alliance http://www.tacaonline.org/). What follows is Prof. Karpat’s description of one particular community sinking roots in Long Island, New York:

According to Karpat, migration to the U.S. from Turkey took place in three big waves.  

1) In the the last 20-30 years of the Ottoman Empire, one million Ottoman subjects arrived at North and South America from Syria, Lebanon (which were all Ottoman territories back then) and Southern Anatolia. 85% were Christians and 15% were Muslims. Many became extremely successful in Latin America, producing even Heads of State (in Venezuela, for example). There are prominent Ottomans here in the US as well but they are known very little, Karpat said.

2) The second wave of migration from Turkey crashed upon the American shores after WW2. The "cream of intelligentsia" arrived, settling at the top 5-10% of the American socioeconomic ladder. 15,000-to-20,000 immigrants at most.

3) The 60-70% of the 300,000 estimated Turkish-Americans have arrived within the last 20 years, Karpat said. This new group has a very different background, "posing opportunities and problems for the future." They are mostly employed at the lower-ranks of service sector and concentrate in two states: New Jersey and New York. The mid-Long-Island community centering around Hungtington (http://www.riverheadli.com/) and Riverhead (http://www.riverheadli.com/), a 30-mile-by-20-mile area, is one such Turkish community, Karpat explained. There are 15,000-to-20,000 Turks who live in this area (NOT including at least that many in Western LI and Brooklyn, NY). They are mostly from Corum, Yozgat, Ankara. Many are related to one another and display a great deal of social cohesion and solidarity centering on the locality where they originated from – known within the Turkish context as the "hemserilik" phenomenon . Their parents migrated from small villages from Central Anatolia. They have arrived on their own.  They are mostly elementary school graduates. Some have no schooling whatsoever. At most 5% are high school graduates. Some finished college since they’ve arrived and moved up into the professional ranks. However even those who do not have any education display a very high degree of initiative, innovations, perseverance and hard work. As a result, many became very rich and successful, living the classical "American Dream."

Approximately 250 gas stations in mid-LI are owned and operated by these Turkish-Americans. LI is also home to the rich and famous but many buy their gas from these Turkish-Americans who arrived within the last 20 years. Many Turks own 2 or 3 stations. One such Turk owns 25 service stations. The attendants are also mostly Turks, working for low wages, totaling 3,000-4,000 workers. Long Island is fast becoming an "mini-patria" for them.

Others are engaged in house painting and house repairs – another lucrative if labor-intensive service sector. There are 10-15 Turkish companies now specializing in painting and house repairs. One of them, a gentleman from Giresun (on the Black Sea coast), owns 7-8 "huge trucks" and employs at least 15 people – most of them from Latin America. 

A variety of shops supports this community, selling edible goods, imported from Turkey. Thus they provide an outlet to Turkish exporters as well. Small mom-and-pop Turkish restaurants provide delicious and authentic yet affordable meals.

The conditions in America also forced a radical change in the classical family structure of small conservative Anatolian villages from where these Turks came from. Due to the irresistible attraction of $15-to-20 dollar an hour wages, many traditional housewives are now working as house cleaners at the homes of the rich-and-famous. 

90% of these Turks will stay in the United States, become citizens, establish new roots here, Prof. Karpat said. They are buying houses, having children, enrolling them in public schools. Thus the new generation of Turkish-Americans are growing up as regular Americans, speaking perfect English, acting as cultural ambassadors in between their parents’ world and the American mainstream.

Some of these Turks are making repeated attempts to go back to Turkey and establish similar business enterprises there. But a number of them failed in such attempts, eventually came back to the U.S. and continued from where they left off. 

Religion is one dimension that distinguishes these late-comers from early-comers as well. This new group of blue-collar Turkish-Americans are determined to own up to their religious identities as devout Muslims – without, however, losing the "Turkishness" of their religious practices. 

Thus, in addition to the Fatih Mosque, they have opened two more mosques in Long Island – the
Suleymaniye and Osmaniye mosques (all named after Turkish-Ottoman sultans of the past, instead of any Arabic references). 

Some secular Turks who arrived earlier are concerned that such religious activity might be the harbinger of a "fundamentalist threat." Prof. Karpat insisted that such activities were nothing more than the desire of these Turkish-Americans to lead a spiritual life and make that an additional glue of their authentic living "community," in its full Turkish texture. 

These Turkish-Americans do not want to attend the existing mosques established by Muslims from Arab and other countries because the other mosques do not feel Turkish enough, Karpat explained.  The same group also do not forget to proudly celebrate all Turkish secular national holidays, Karpat added, and participate in full-force in the traditional Turkish Day Parade (such as the one that will be held over this weekend in New York City). 

This new group of Turks who never deny their Turkishness (first) as well as their Islamic identity (second) could really be an asset for the traditionally "white-collar-heavy" Turkish-American community, Karpat said. 

The growth (in quantity) and development (in quality) of such an important community will certainly change the impact of Turkish lobbying in the United States in perceptible ways, as we shall all follow in the years ahead.

Turkish Torque

Tuesday, May 14, 2002

An INDEPENDENT, PRIVATE, and FREE digest of Turkish/American news, media notes and commentary. 

Copyright 2002 Ugur Akinci, Ph.D.