The enduring democracy pdf

This study evaluates a very unique example of democratic rights of the largest minority group Turkish immigrants who migrated from Turkey to Germany. In their top-down analysis, some researchers sometimes ignore democratic rights of minority groups while they define and measure democracy in a country. The reason is that these researchers mainly focus on the rights of people who are citizens but majority of the immigrants stays as non-citizen. Moreover, even if an immigrant gains citizenship in the receiving country, there is no guarantee for the elimination of discrimination towards him.

It is important to find out how minority groups can practice their democratic rights in countries considered as good democracy. In order to make a specific analysis, descriptive analysis is applied to explain how Turkish immigrants in Germany practice their democratic rights. Considering these rights, we face many unequal treatments of Turkish immigrants, especially the ones with Muslim background.

It is important to tell that Turkish immigrants are not composed of one ethnicity, language or religion, but rather different backgrounds such as Kurdish, Turkish and Alevis. It has been argued that there are many problems about democratic rights of Turkish immigrant with Muslim background despite the fact that Germany is mostly considered as a good example of democracy. In the first part of the study, there is a general review of the history of immigration and democracy in Germany.

The second part consists of the current status of democratic rights of Turkish immigrants and the evaluation of these rights by focusing on the problematic issues. These rights are the following ones: citizenship rights, religious rights, right to vote and right to be elected. In the last part of the study, there is a general conclusion of discussions and evaluations of democratic rights of Turkish immigrants in the previous parts.

We also give policy recommendations for decision-makers and NGOs in Turkey and Germany in order to enhance democratic rights of Turkish immigrants, and to eliminate discrimination towards them. Thus, majority of Turkish immigrants now reside in Germany and they also compose the largest minority group there. For instance, they increased their voices to get more rights such as freedom of religion, citizenship rights, freedom of association and right to educate themselves in minority languages.

According to Federal Statistical Office of Germany, there was an increase of However, it is interesting note that the number of Turkish immigrants as the largest immigrant group in Germany 3 with Turkish citizenship is continuously decreasing because of the people who turned back to Turkey and some others who gained German citizenship due to German legislation which limits dual citizenship. The data shows that immigrants who are non-citizens have been decreasing continuously because many of them from third countries prefer to gain German citizenship, or they return to their country of origin.

This study, therefore, evaluates the democratic rights of Turkish immigrants with Muslim background from third countries, and we ignore the citizenship issue because discrimination towards this immigrant group continues despite the fact that they gain German citizenship. Germany is thought to be in the second wave of democratization from s to s as Huntington proposed in his framework of three waves of democratization.

In this framework, the countries which have been democratic since s are the part of first wave of democratization. The second wave of democratization includes the countries which have been democratic since s and s. The last wave starts by the end of Portugese dictatorship in so includes countries which are democratic after that time Huntington, In his research, on the other hand, Lijphardt compares thirty-six democratic countries which are thought to be democratic in as Freedom House asserts, and he tries to find out how principal social and economic characteristics influence the types of democracy and democratic performance.

Lijphardt classifies these countries according to the first year of democratic elections since or since independence, and he points out that Germany is regarded as democratic since Moreover, Germany is a semi plural society due 2 Detailed information can be found at: www. DOI: Considering these opinion above, we can claim that Germany party system is between two parties and one- party. Since the first democratic election in , there have always been coalitions in Germany.

These are the most important political parties in German politics. It is also important to note that Germany is a federal and decentralized country which consists of sixteen federal states Lander. That means there is division of power and decentralization of power between federal states and the central government, because each federal state has its own parliament.

For instance, federal units in Germany have sovereignty to organize their educational policies. Majority of the democracy studies about Germany asserts that it is a good example of democracy; however, there have been huge debates about the democratic rights of immigrants in this country. Germany is thought to be an immigrant country Einwanderugsland due to the migration of foreign workers Gastarbeiter , immigrants and refugees since s, and Turkish immigrants composes the largest minority group there.

However, there have been many problems about these immigrants since they decided to stay in Germany instead of going back to their country of origin as initially expected by German authorities. Therefore, their integration to German society has become an important issue due to their cultural, ethnic and religious background.

The most well- known problems arises in the areas of citizenship rights, religious rights, right to vote and right to be elected. The reasons of these problems are not one-sided; it is rather two-sided problem which means that both German authorities and Turkish immigrants need to take effective actions.

Moreover, current government in Turkey is more interested in the rights of immigrants in Europe compared to previous governments. Therefore, the attitude of the Turkish government is also important in enhancing the democratic rights of Turkish immigrants in Germany.

Following title covers the current legal status of democratic rights of Turkish immigrants. The main reasons of the problems in using these rights are discussed and analyzed. When we talk about democratic rights of Mexicans, black people and Muslims in America, or democratic rights of immigrants and refugees in Europe; we find many examples of unequal applications and discrimination towards different ethnic, religious or cultural minority groups.

Like Lincoln, Dahl also argues that institutions which are responsible for making public policies must consider votes and other expressions of preferences because it is an important for a democracy.

In this direction, they need to make comprehensive studies which include the rights of minority groups which are culturally, ethnically and religiously different. Citizenship-based studies take legal citizens of democratic countries as unit of analysis but these studies mostly ignore minorities which does not hold citizenship but reside in these countries.

Moreover, even if they hold citizenship of the receiving country where they settled, these studies cannot measure discrimination towards citizens with immigrant background.

For instance, the population of Turkish immigrants without German citizenship is about 1. Even if an immigrant holds citizenship but still faces discrimination due to its different ethnicity, culture or religion DOI: As a multi-cultural society, German authorities face these issues; therefore, there is a need for the analysis of legal status of democratic rights of immigrants in Germany. However, it is also important to consider some problems appear due to factors depending on immigrants such as strong ties with the country of origin, conservatism, religion, cultural background.

These factors prevent immigrants from integrating themselves to the receiving countries, and they result in lack of communication. In order to find out the legal status of democratic rights of immigrants in Germany, we should firstly understand the attitudes of German political parties towards immigrants.

The number of immigrants and refugees who migrate to Germany increases each year due to social, political and economic crises in their countries of origin. On the other hand, the population of Germany is getting older according to many studies, and Germany need about half million foreign workforce to sustain its strong economy DIAM, Therefore, both parties are skeptic about immigration, and they are reluctant about establishing legislation to enlarge economic and political rights for the immigrants.

Instead of this, they try to find out new ways like state incentives for new-born German babies to increase their young population who can provide workforce for the economy; however, they have not been successful until now. Although these parties are favor of controlled migration to Germany, SPD and Green Party have a very positive attitude toward immigration. Thus, these parties accept the reality that Germany is a multi-cultural society so they follow positive policies in this direction.

Moreover, it is important to note that these parties have many foreign politicians as party member. Citizenship Rights of Turkish Immigrants Citizenship is an important concept which creates mutual responsibilities and duties for citizens and the state. It binds citizens legally and politically to the state which has sovereignty to decide how the rules and regulations need to be.

However, these rules and regulations cannot conflict with democratic constitutions, international agreements and contracts. There are three commonly accepted ways of gaining citizenship in the literature: a familial link jure sanguinis , birth place jure soli , and acquired nationality DIAM, If a country defines itself as migration country and aims to integrate immigrants into its society, they establish birth place approach.

Germany is a good example of a country which attaches importance to domestic allegiance and follows familial link approach in naturalization regulations. The other ways of naturalization are citizenship by marriage to ensure family integrity, asylum, adoption, citizenship as a result of social, cultural and economic integration by staying too long in a country Aybay, ; Erdem, Historically, consciousness of being German developed before the consciousness of the state, so the understanding of citizenship in Germany is based on familial link, ethnicity, culture and language DIAM, Brubaker argues that the understanding of citizenship in Germany was inherited from the discriminatory national identity legacy of the Prussia.

Compared to France where universal and integrationist citizenship ideas appeared, Germany developed a contrary citizenship idea because German empire was not established as a modern state but rather it was organized by independent German kingdoms and principalities Brubaker, Therefore, it was hard to establish a central citizenship notion during this period. Federal structure of the country necessitates two kinds of citizenship due to share of power between federal states and central authority.

Dual Citizenship Rights of Turkish Immigrants In Germany, when SPD and Green Party were in the coalition in , they tried to establish a new legislation in order to provide the right of dual citizenship for the immigrants who stayed in Germany for a certain period of time, but CDU and CSU reacted against this legislation so they could only establish a conditional legislation which could not solve the problems of citizenship for the immigrants until DIAM, This model was against the rights of immigrants, born in Germany, to get dual citizenship; therefore, there had been many reactions and debates about that issue until After that time new coalition in Germany established radical changes in the option model which was prohibiting dual citizenship.

Actually, this option model had only been applied to immigrants from third countries5, while citizens of the European Union and Switzerland has always right to have dual citizenship. The new changes in provided chances for third country nationals who were born in Germany to get rid of option model if they carry one of the conditions below until the age of 21 DIAM, 25 : -Staying in Germany for more than 8 years -Studying in a German school for more than 6 years -Hold any kind of school degree finished in Germany or a certificate of a career training Berufsausbildung As it is seen, the new changes in still binds dual citizenship to some conditions, although it created new chances for people who have foreign parents and born in Germany.

On the other hand, there are some ways for other third country nationals who did not born in Germany but still demand German citizenship. However, all of these ways oblige the third country national to expatriate themselves from their previous citizenship. In addition to this condition, there are some other conditions such as living in the country for more than 8 years under some conditions 6 years , passing citizenship test made of 33 questions, accepting the principle liberal values in the German constitution DIAM, According to Federal Statistical Office of Germany, the number of Turkish immigrants who left Turkish citizenship and get German citizenship were This continuous decrease is due to number of people who returns to their country of origin DIAM, It can be observed that discrimination, limitations on social and political rights of immigrants lead these immigrants to return to their country of origin.

In the following parts, these issues are discussed more detailed. Discrimination Towards Turkish Immigrants Citizenship obliges people to be loyal to the state, while it also obliges state to treat all its citizens equally.

We can say that the law seeks to implement equality between people within the business world and civil society. The Research Institute of the Federal Employment Agency made a survey published in to find out the level of discrimination towards immigrants in Europe and Germany. These immigrants face discrimination in the areas of job seeking, accommodation, equal treatment by civil servants, residence permission and education etc.

Therefore many studies show that Turkish immigrants with high or mid-level education are seeking jobs abroad, especially in Turkey, due to discrimination they experience in Germany. Based on this information, we can argue that actions to eliminate discrimination towards immigrants in Germany have not been successful yet. Especially, upsetting events towards people with different ethnicities and religion during the Nazi period was taken as a main reference point while creating a modern democratic constitution in Germany.

It is important to tell that Turkish immigrants are not composed of single ethnicity, language or religion, but rather multiple backgrounds such as Kurdish, Turkish and Alevis. Alevis, for example, experience a more positive treatment, while Sunni immigrants experience a more negative treatment.

There are apparent problems within wearing head scarf in public and private spheres, religious education depended on the official recognition of Islam as religious community, halal food production for Muslims, protection of mosques from anti-Islamist attacks and the right to be circumcised for male children. To keep it short, our discussion will focus on the problem of head scarf, anti-Islamist attacks on mosques, and religious education relying on the official recognition of Islam as religious community.

New generations of Turkish immigrants with Muslim backgrounds integrated themselves into German society by education compared to previous generations who came to Germany temporarily to work and earn money before they go back to their country of origin.

However, majority of the first generation Turkish immigrants settled in Germany and so did their children. Since these children started to demand higher positions, better jobs and better treatment in the German public sphere; they have been facing more discrimination compared to their parents. Head scarf is one of the most decisive symbols of Muslim women, but Turkish immigrant women in Germany experience many problems due to their head scarf.

There are many cases in the German courts about using head scarf in public and private sectors. For instance, Federal Constitutional Court of Germany made a decision in and told that forbidding of head scarf for Muslim women in schools is against the constitution because it cannot be considered as a threat to education; and Bremen was the first federal unit which implemented this decision DIAM, 31 and Federal Court of Bonn made the decision that school administration has right to forbid head scarf for female students in the courses.

Another example can be given from the area of work where Muslim women want freedom to wear head scarf. A Muslim woman aged 36 wanted to wear head scarf while she works as a nurse in the Protestant church in Bochum; however, she was dismissed.

According to the church the reason of dismissal depends on the contract with this woman which points out that non-Christian workers should be impartial while they are working, but the head scarf is a symbol of another religion. The court took the side of the church and gave encouraging decision that the church administration has the right to forbid head scarf in the working hours DIAM, These cases show that Muslim women wearing head scarf experience discrimination in the public and private sectors in Germany; although, Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany forbids all kinds of discrimination on religion.

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Careers in Political Science. Preparing While Still on Campus. Forms and Functions of Government. American Government and Politics. American Political Culture. Is American Democracy in Decline? The Beginnings of a New Nation. The Constitutional Convention. The New Constitution. The Ratification Battle. Changing the Constitution. What Is Federalism? The History of American Federalism. Why Federalism?

Advantages and Disadvantages. The Bill of Rights: Origins and Evolution. Freedom of Religion and the Establishment Clause. Free Expression Rights. The Modern Right to Privacy. Types of Equality. The Struggle for Equality: Approaches and Tactics. Other Group Struggles for Equality.

Continuing Struggles over Equality in the Modern Era. Article I and the Creation of Congress. The Structure and Organization of Congress. The Committee System. How a Bill Becomes a Law. Oversight and Personnel Functions of Congress. Where Do Presidents Come From? Presidential Comings and Goings. The Evolution of the American Presidency. Express Powers and Responsibilities of the President.

Implied Powers and Responsibilities of the President. Presidential Resources. Important Presidential Relationships. What Is Bureaucracy?

What Does the Federal Bureaucracy Do? The Development of the Federal Bureaucracy. Getting Control of the Growing Bureaucracy.

The Organization of the Federal Bureaucracy. The Federal Workforce. Types of Law. The Structure of the U. Legal System. The Adversarial System of Justice. Judicial Review and Its Implications.