This book focuses on the sociological dynamics of two of the most important Turkish immigration waves to the United States. It describes the wave of early Turkish immigration during the early 19th century and the most recent from the late 20th century. Although a few historians have studied the topic (Karpat, 1985; Acehan, 2005; Micallef, 2004; and Akcapar, 2009), this study utilizes extant international migration and adaptation theories to explore issues related to Turkish immigration to the United States and the outcome explains Turkish immigration to the United States from a distinctly sociological point of view. This book also enlightens the concepts of identity formation across Turkish American generations and analyzes vital distinctions between first and second generation immigrants with regard to their acculturation. Moreover, this book contributes to discussions on cultural tourism, international business relations, and the cultural market. In addition to that, the meaning of race, the existing theories of race, and how the construction of whiteness are points of interest in this book. Finally, the emphasis on intermarriage, religion, and Turkish identity are analyzed.

In this age of multicultural democracy, the idea of assimilation--that the social distance separating immigrants and their children from the mainstream of American society closes over time--seems outdated and, in some forms, even offensive. But as Richard Alba and Victor Nee show in the first systematic treatment of assimilation since the mid-1960s, it continues to shape the immigrant experience, even though the geography of immigration has shifted from Europe to Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Institutional changes, from civil rights legislation to immigration law, have provided a more favorable environment for nonwhite immigrants and their children than in the past. Assimilation is still driven, in claim, by the decisions of immigrants and the second generation to improve their social and material circumstances in America. But they also show that immigrants, historically and today, have profoundly changed our mainstream society and culture in the process of becoming Americans. Surveying a variety of domains--language, socioeconomic attachments, residential patterns, and intermarriage--they demonstrate the continuing importance of assimilation in American life. And they predict that it will blur the boundaries among the major, racially defined populations, as nonwhites and Hispanics are increasingly incorporated into the mainstream.

The Native American Contest Powwow introduces Cultural Tethering Theory to convey the importance of the contest powwow in the celebration and preservation of Native American culture. The book addresses the concepts of culture, cultural change, acculturation, assimilation, and illustrates how competitive powwows align with and differ from competitive sporting events. Authors Steven Aicinena and Sebahattin Ziyanak go on to explain how the modern intertribal contest powwow evolved and why modern Native American cultures are experiencing an erosion of traditional values, a rapid loss of traditional languages, dysfunctional changes in social organization, limited opportunity to transmit culturally valued knowledge, and reduced opportunities for youths to observe culturally appropriate behavior. The authors also examine Native American identity and explore who can legitimately claim to be a Native American under current laws and customs. Additional topics addressed include blood quantum, cultural knowledge, cultural participation, being Indian, and playing Indian. Finally, the authors describe the difference between being Native American and playing Indian in powwow and pseudo-cultural powwow environments.

Provides a rich examination of how Turkish immigrants and their children created spaces of belonging in West German society.

In Understanding Deviance, Crime, Social Control, and Mass Media: The Construction of Social Order Sebahattin Ziyanak examines parental responsibility for their children’s development. Contributors to the volume summarize the functionalist perspective of deviance, the function of crimes, and how these perspectives have influenced the development of Emile Durkheim’s work like anomie and then turn their attention to fear of crime in regard to social order. An in-depth examination of how the Tennessean newspaper The City Paper and its readers’ comments frame the coverage of the Kurdish Pride Gang. Contributions to the volume also provide insight into pluralism and politicized religion. Ziyanak assess and compares the theories of differential association, low self-control, and Black’s theory of social control for explaining deviance. Focus on fear and risk perceptions of terrorism are touched upon as well the account of communication media technology and how it influences culture, control, as well as deviance. Contributors also address how the development of technology has affected the nature of deviance and social control and what is the impact of media use among the young children. Lastly examined is how the sociological imagination of the individuals living in southeastern Turkey is constructed through the movie, The Bliss.

This collection of essays discusses various aspects of the experiences of Turkish immigrants in the United States, and of US expatriates in Turkey. It explores the predicament of the Turkish-American element on US soil, in a manner paralleling already existent disciplines such as Italian-American Studies and German-American Studies, and assembles disparate research on the subject. As such, it will serve to herald in print the launching of a new paradigm, Turkish-American Studies. The volume fits within transnational American Studies, but also develops its own approach, which is what constitutes its novelty.

Migration has changed the social, cultural, political, and economic landscape of many countries. Mutual aid organizations, ethic-oriented religious organizations, hometown associations, and various other types of ethnic and immigrant organizations emerged to respond to the particular needs of immigrant communities. For countries with a tradition of civic participation, integrating immigrants into civic life becomes an important issue. This article reviews the literature on ethnic/immigrant associations and minorities’ or immigrants’ voluntary participation in major developed countries that have experienced a significant increase of immigrants, particularly after the 1990s. In terms of ethnic/immigrant associations, the author reviews the historical background of research in this area, the size and scope, the formation and development, the memberships, and the financial well-being of these associations, the roles they play in helping immigrants acculturate into the host countries, and the classification of ethnic/immigrant associations. Particular attention is given to immigrants’ mutual aid organizations, ethnic cultural organizations, ethnic-oriented religious organizations, and hometown associations. The author also reviews the literature that examines the factors influencing minorities’ and immigrants’ voluntary participation, their formal and informal volunteering, as well we immigrant youth’s voluntary participation.

A story of those who entered the new world through Ellis Island in their own words.

This book puts forward a new model of acculturation combining psychological, sociolinguistic and identity theories to study Turkish immigrants across the globe. The authors argue that such a multidisciplinary perspective is very important in understanding acculturation processes in migrants, particularly for pivotal aspects such as language and identity. Studying one group or several groups within a country is the most common methodological approach in acculturation studies. The authors argue on the basis of their extensive ethnographic work that focusing on one immigrant ethnic group across countries instead provides deeper insights into interactive acculturation orientations of both the receiving societies and immigrant groups. They therefore synthesize findings from their work on Turkish immigrants in Australia and several countries in Europe. Moreover, they include extensive accounts of acculturation across several generations of Turkish migrants, thereby giving readers insights into the long-term acculturation process. The book critically discusses language maintenance and shift, child-rearing practices and socialization beliefs, and educational achievement in Turkish immigrants, and uses a mixed-methods approach. It is meant for researchers and policy makers interested in acculturation and the role of the acculturation context. In a nutshell, the book stresses the dynamic and ever-evolving nature of linguistic habits and cultural integration tendencies and convinces the reader about the complexity of the background factors that play a role in shaping the behaviour of immigrant minorities. Anyone who reads the book will be equipped with the skills to critically assess research on immigrant language maintenance.