Kurds in German-speaking countries

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The Kurds in the German-speaking area have their residence v. a. in Germany , Austria or German-speaking Switzerland . Their number in Central Europe is not recorded in the official statistics, but it is estimated that over a million people of Kurdish descent now live in the German-speaking and cultural area.

statistics

The number of Kurds is not officially recorded because people (nationals and foreigners) are recorded in official statistics according to their nationality. However, since the Kurdish people do not have their own Kurdish nation state , there can be no Kurdish citizenship . The Kurdish settlement area in Western Asia crosses national borders and consists of people with Kurdish mother tongue and culture. The majority of Kurds are citizens of Turkey , Iraq , Iran , Syria or citizens of their adopted home in Central Europe. The Kurds were and will only be officially recorded if someone, as an asylum seeker, states that he or she has been exposed to political persecution as a Kurd in his or her country of origin .

History of Kurdish Migration to Germany

A relatively small group of Kurds have stayed in the country of study at all times after the Second World War, especially in Germany.

Before 1961

Even before 1961, several thousand members of the Kurdish elite and their children came to Germany in the 1950s and 1960s, mainly for study purposes or on a diplomatic mission.

1961 to 1973

The first major wave of Kurdish immigration (1961–1973) began with the recruitment agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and Turkey , which was signed on October 30, 1961 in Bad Godesberg . From 1961 until the recruitment ban in 1973 about 867,000 workers, almost all men, as "were guest workers called" migrant workers from Turkey in the Federal Republic of Germany. 500,000 of them returned. Those who stayed brought their families afterwards, so that in 1978 1.2 million Turkish nationals were registered in the Federal Republic of Germany (in 1980 there were 1.5 million, in 1998 2.1 million). The first migrant workers from Turkey were recruited from the western and central parts of the country, so the Kurds were initially underrepresented. This changed in the course of the 1970s, when the proportion of guest workers from the part of Turkey, which is predominantly inhabited by Kurds, e.g. B. Dersim (Tunceli), Elazığ , Muş , Adıyaman , Malatya and Kayseri increased. If you compare the number (2.1 million) of people of Turkish origin in Germany in 1998 with the number of Kurds in Turkey at the time, it can be assumed that at least 500,000 (a quarter) of the people of Turkish origin who immigrated to Germany were of Kurdish origin.

Most of these migrants still regarded themselves primarily as Turks in Germany from 1961 to 1973, as many of them had "internalized" the official doctrine of Turkey that every citizen of Turkey is a Turk or (especially through those in the Turkey practiced assimilation policy) perceived as Turks. The rediscovery of the “Kurdish” identity or the emphasis on “being Kurdish” arose for many only through the activities of Kurdish students and (from the 1980s) refugees from political persecution . The next generations, consisting of people of Kurdish origin who grew up in Germany, tend to be more interested in Kurdish identity and Kurdish politics than their parents, even though, like them, they mostly have German citizenship . Many parents returned to their Kurdish roots under the influence of their children, provided they did not consider themselves predominantly German.

According to the International Education and Advice Center for Women and their Families in Berlin-Spandau, Kurds made up a third (ie approx. 400,000) of the “guest workers” recruited from Turkey in 1973.

1979 to 1990

The second wave (1980–1990) of Kurdish migration to Germany began in 1979; it lasted until the late 1990s. A relatively large number of Kurds have come to Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 , the 1980 military coup in Turkey , during the Lebanon War (1982), the Turkey-PKK conflict (1984), and after the attacks by Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq (especially after the poison gas attack in 1988 on Halabdscha ) as an asylum seeker in the Federal Republic of Germany. The genocidal measures of the Iraqi Baath regime during the “ Anfal Operation ” between 1988 and 1989, which were mainly used against the Kurdish population in eight phases, had killed 180,000 people.

1990 to 2000

The third wave (1990–2000) of immigration to Germany , which has since been reunified , mainly affects Kurds who have fled or been expelled from their countries of origin.

The late 1990s marked the peak of the wave of asylum seekers. During this time, around 80 percent of all asylum seekers in Germany assigned to Turkey in statistics came from the Kurdish regions.

A third to over half of the refugees from Iraq who came to the German-speaking area since the end of the 1990s were Kurds.

2011 to 2018

The fourth wave of Kurdish migration (2011 to 2018) to the Federal Republic of Germany began with the “ Arab Spring ”, the appearance of the Syrian civil war and the emergence of religiously motivated fundamentalist movements in Syria and Iraq, which peaked in 2016. According to calculations by the BAMF in 2016, 266,250 people were registered with the office as asylum seekers from Syria; 29% of them were of Kurdish origin.

Result of immigration

The number of Kurds living in Germany is estimated by the Kurdish Community Germany eV at over 1 million. The BAMF, on the other hand, names the number between 500,000 and 1 million Kurds in Germany.

Most of the people of Turkish origin born in Germany, including the Kurdish people among them, speak fluent German. With regard to their understanding of gender roles in particular, members of the second generation and their descendants tend to adapt gradually to the norms of the host society. According to the BAMF, people with German citizenship are generally better integrated into German society, have on average a higher level of education and speak better German than people with Turkish citizenship. According to the BAMF, citizenship has two-fold effects: on the one hand, acceptance of German citizenship improves integration and thus opens up better opportunities on the labor market. On the other hand, people who are particularly well integrated are more likely to be naturalized, since there are high requirements for integration in order to acquire German citizenship.

From the statements of the BAMF it can be concluded that people of Kurdish origin are better integrated into German society than people of Turkish origin, as there are hardly any incentives for people of Kurdish origin, especially those who have been subjected to ethnic persecution in Turkey, to retain their Turkish citizenship. In addition, asylum seekers of Kurdish origin have generally gratefully accepted the offer to quickly become German citizens in order to escape the fate of statelessness , which has many disadvantages.

The debate about the Turkish invasion of Kurdish-controlled northern Syria from September 2019 further fueled conflicts between German Turks and Kurds.

Religions

Various religions and beliefs are represented among Kurds. The majority of Kurds in German-speaking countries are Muslims , they make up around two thirds. In addition, there are Alevis , Yezidi , Yarsanis , Christians , Jews and non-religious .

The majority of the Kurds living in the German-speaking area, especially in Germany, are Sunni Muslims who follow the Shafiite school of law . A small part of the Kurds living in the German-speaking area are Sunni Muslims who follow the Hanafi school of law . Also represented are twelve Shiites such as Faili Kurds and the Bajwan, who emerged from the Shia . Around 40 mosques in Germany belong to the Islamic umbrella organization Islamic Society of Kurdistan ( Kurdish Civaka Îslamiya Kurdistan , abbreviated to CÎK ). The umbrella organization has its seat in Hagen .

The number of Kurdish Alevis in Germany is estimated at around 175,000.

Between 150,000 and 200,000 Yazidis live in the Federal Republic of Germany, 7,000 of them in the city of Celle and 1,300 in Oldenburg .

Self-image and political orientation

A Kurdish-run supermarket in Bielefeld

In Germany, the "Kurdish Community in Germany eV" (KGD) represents the umbrella organization of the Kurds in Germany and describes itself as "expressly religiously neutral". Its chairman is the law and social scientist Ali Ertan Toprak , who sits on the ZDF television council as the first representative of the "migrants" .

Many of the Kurds who immigrated to Germany as guest workers initially did not attach particular importance to not being classified as Turks . The awareness of the Kurds in Germany that they belong to a different ethnic group than the Turkish increased with the political tensions in the Kurdish regions in Turkey and the growing influx of refugees and asylum seekers from Turkey. Life in the (German) diaspora provides impetus for the development of the Kurdish written language, Kurdish literature and music.

One percent (11,500) of the Kurds living in Germany are classified by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as supporters of the "People's Congress of Kurdistan" ( Kongra Gel ), the successor organization to the banned underground organization PKK . In Germany, there are sometimes violent conflicts between younger Kurds and ethnic Turks. According to the chairman of the German-Turkish forum in the North Rhine-Westphalian CDU, Bülent Arslan , the conflict between Turks and Kurds in Germany is an expression of a lack of integration.

The political scientist Kenan Engin sees the conflict in the Middle East. As long as the lines of conflict in countries like Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran are not finally resolved, the tense situation in Germany will be difficult to resolve. At a Kurdish cultural festival on Mannheim's Maimarkt in September 2012 there were serious outbreaks of violence by Kurdish participants against the police, in which over 80 officers were injured. Radicalized Kurdish participants hoisted flags of the banned PKK on the event site , and a video message from Murat Karayılan was sent by the organizers.

The Kurds who are eligible to vote in Germany vote the Left Party more than average , as they show solidarity with the pro-Kurdish, left-wing HDP party in Turkey, the Kurdish militia in Syria, YPG and, in some cases, with the Kurdish Workers' Party, PKK, which is banned in Germany and classified as a terrorist organization Connections.

See also

Portal: Migration and Integration  - Articles, categories and more on migration and flight, intercultural dialogue and integration

literature

  • Susanne Schmidt: Being Kurdish with a German passport !: Formal integration, cultural identity and everyday life of young people of Kurdish origin in North Rhine-Westphalia: a quantitative study . Navend, Bonn 2000, ISBN 3-933279-09-7 .
  • Susanne Schmidt: Being Kurdish and not being. Insights into self-images of young people of Kurdish origin: a qualitative study . Navend, Bonn 1998, ISBN 3-933279-05-4 .
  • Gesa Anne Busche: Survival after torture and escape. Resilience of Kurdish women in Germany . transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2013, ISBN 978-3-8376-2296-6 .
  • Burkhard Weitz: Angel, honor, many children . In: Chrismon , July 2017 issue, pp. 62–69
  • Kenan Engin (ed.): Kurdish migrants in Germany: Lifeworlds-Identity-Political Participation . Kassel University Press, Kassel 2019, ISBN 978-3-7376-0648-6 ( google.de ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Air 2014
  2. ↑ https://books.google.de/books?id=7HKFDwAAQBAJ&pg=PP1&lpg=PP1&dq=kenan+engin+kurden+kassel&source=bl&ots=oD-ocSkHxl&sig=ACfU3U2ImpU-R0u9gNMGUrzeUb_4B4Xelg&hl=de&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiN59Sl6aHgAhV78eAKHdglAz4Q6AEwCXoECAUQAQ#v=onepage&q=kenan % 20engin% 20kurden% 20kassel & f = false
  3. ^ Van Bruinessen 2000
  4. ↑ HÎNBÛN - International educational and counseling center for women and their families in Berlin-Spandau: Kurds in Germany
  5. ↑ NAVEND - Center for Kurdish Studies: Development of the number of Kurdish refugees from Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey from 1991 to 2001 ( Memento from February 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 10 kB)
  6. ^ German-Kurdish Society: The situation of the Kurds in Germany ( Memento of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), specialist work, p. 13 f.
  7. ↑ 79 percent of all Turkish asylum seekers in 2007 were of Kurdish ethnicity: Around 19,000 asylum seekers in 2007 - lowest access since 1977 ( memento of May 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), BMI, January 10, 2008.
  8. ^ Zeit Online - For a new German Kurdish policy
  9. ↑ 35 percent Kurds among 17,167 Iraqi asylum seekers in 2001: Asylum seeker figures 2002 Source: BMI press release of January 8, 2003 and Germany: Number of asylum seekers reaches its highest level for the year ( memento of November 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), bpb, Migration und Population issue 06 / 01 (September 2001).
  10. ↑ A good half of the Kurds of 1983 Iraqi asylum seekers in 2005: Federal Minister of the Interior Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble: Access to asylum seekers in 2005 at the lowest level in 20 years ( memento from June 26, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) BMI January 8, 2006.
  11. ↑ 43 percent Kurds of 6,836 Iraqi asylum seekers in 2008: https://www.bamf.de/SharedDocs/Anlagen/DE/Publikationen/Broschueren/broschuere-asyl-in-zahlen-2008.pdf?__blob=publicationFileAsyl in numbers 2008 , BAMF
  12. ↑ Kenan Engin, Kurdish Migrants in Germany: Living Worlds - Identity - Political Participation . Kassel University Press. Kassel 2019. ( online )
  13. ↑ The number of Kurds in Germany skyrocketed. - Kurdish Community Germany eV In: Kurdish Community Germany eV ( Kurdische-gemeinde.de [accessed on June 30, 2018]).
  14. ^ Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com): Kurdish youth in Germany call for violent protest in Europe | DW | 03/12/2018. Retrieved June 30, 2018 .
  15. ↑ Susanne Schührer: People of Turkish origin in Germany. Findings from the representative study "Selected migrant groups in Germany 2015" (RAM). 2018, p. 15 f. , accessed February 5, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Susanne Schührer: Study: Integration of people of Turkish origin in Germany . Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF). October 16, 2018
  17. ↑ Turks and Kurds - conflict reaches Germany
  18. ↑ NAVEND - Center for Kurdish Studies: Religion ( Memento from December 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  19. ↑ Sukriye Dogan / Eva Savelsberg: The Religious Landscape of the Kurds ( Memento from December 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  20. ^ Yazidis in Germany - Farewell to Afrin . In: Deutschlandfunk . ( deutschlandfunk.de [accessed June 30, 2018]).
  21. ^ Foundation of a federal association - Yazidis in Germany organize . In: Deutschlandfunk . ( deutschlandfunk.de [accessed June 30, 2018]).
  22. ↑ Jesidin in Germany - "It is fear, fear, fear" . In: Deutschlandfunk . ( deutschlandfunk.de [accessed June 30, 2018]).
  23. ↑ The Yezidis in Germany - Religion and Life ( Memento from February 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  24. ^ Kurdish Community Germany eV . Retrieved July 19, 2016
  25. ↑ Erdogan's opponents are apparently under massive threats in Germany . Focus . July 19, 2016. Retrieved July 20, 2016
  26. ^ ZDF television council: Six out of sixty . July 6, 2016. Retrieved July 20, 2016
  27. ^ Matthias Drobinski : Kurds in Germany. Deadly pride ( Memento from December 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) In: Süddeutsche Zeitung from July 15, 2008.
  28. ↑ z. B. Evening show from Radio Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB): Berlin - Street battles Turks against Kurds October 2007.
  29. ^ Kurdish conflict - tens of thousands demonstrate in Germany - isolated incidents Spiegel online from November 4, 2007.
  30. ↑ Kerden in Germany feel powerless and frustrated on morgenweb.de
  31. ↑ Die Welt : Mannheim. Kurdish orgy of violence caught police cold , September 9, 2012, accessed on September 20, 2012.
  32. ↑ The left. - Resolutions of the party executive committee
  33. ↑ The left wears the colors of the Kurds
  34. ↑ [1]