She is one of the most important migration researchers in Germany: Dr Necla Kelek. In 1966, when she was nine years old, she came with her mother and siblings from Turkey to Germany, where her father worked as a controller in a textile factory. Like so many Turkish families in Germany, the Keleks only wanted to stay a few years and then return to Turkey. But things turned out differently. Despite the difficult early years, Necla Kelek studied, earned a doctorate, and had an extraordinary journalistic career. She has received honours and awards for many of her books on integration. In an interview with Diplomatisches Magazin, Dr Necla Kelek talks for the first time about her very personal integration.
DM: Dr Kelek, you came to Germany when you were nine years old. Was the move from Turkey to Germany a culture shock?
Dr. Necla Kelek: We had about two years to prepare for this change. We originally only wanted to stay in Germany for a limited time, my father was working here. So we had time to deal with the change. During this time, my siblings and I were parked in Anatolia with our grandparents for a year, like many children at that time. Until we were picked up, I went to school there and got to know Anatolia. At the same time, we were preparing for Germany. It was an exciting, wonderful time. Our parents also always talked a lot about Germany. Therefore, it was not a shock.
DM: Was your father a classic guest worker?
Dr. Necla Kelek: One can’t say that. Formally, yes, he belonged to the first generation of guest workers. But my father was a convinced European, he appreciated the European idea and mentality. For him, it was an opportunity to evolve in Europe. It was always a major concern of the family to live a European life. He regarded the work in production control in the textile factory as an important learning field, with the aim of later setting up a textile studio in Istanbul together with my brother. He saw his work in Germany as a stopover for a better life in Istanbul.
DM: And how did you feel about Germany? Was it rather alienating or fascinating?
Dr. Necla Kelek: We first lived in Bückeburg in Lower Saxony in a flat that was my father’s sparsely furnished office. This indeed was a shock. But the town itself with its half-timbered houses seemed to us at the time like something out of the Grimm fairy tales, the setting for stories we knew from the radio and from books. We thought we had arrived in a fairytale land. The idyll of the streets and houses, the green landscape around us – it was overwhelming! And we wouldn’t have been surprised if we had met Snow White in the park, Puss in Boots had marched around the corner or Mother Hulda had opened a window somewhere. For the houses all seemed to us to be from a fairytale land. We only knew them like that, from postcards in Turkey.
DM: So you accepted Germany as your new home very quickly?
Dr. Necla Kelek: At first, I was very impressed by this idyll, I loved going to school, I wanted to learn the language straight away. But that changed when it became clear that the time until our return to Turkey was extended, I fell into a kind of depression, a paralysing longing for home and I felt betrayed by my parents. It took me many years to say goodbye to these destructive thoughts. That was one of the most difficult times of my life. It took me almost ten years to find “my” places and my own life.
DM: How did you manage it?
Dr. Necla Kelek: It was a long process. I found my first home in Germany through my trade union work. As a young technical draughtswoman, as an apprentice, the world opened up to me through this political work. When I was able to study, my studies became my next home in Germany. After that, I actually managed to arrive in such a way that I moved into a shared flat with German friends. There, I suddenly also lived and took part in Germany’s everyday life. I had less and less contact with the Turkish, self-contained community. My studies and the shared flat became my new home. Then I became a mother. Through my son, who was born in Germany, I got even closer to this society. With these many steps over a long period of time, I have always opened new worlds for myself in Germany, without ever breaking off contact with and love for Turkey. It’s not easy, but it works. So I have built up my home in Germany bit by bit.
DM: What were the strongest obstacles?
Dr. Necla Kelek: That this town – Bückeburg – was not allowed to become our home.
Home is the relationship between people and space. But in our family, all outside influences on us girls were kept away. Besides, we wanted to go back to Istanbul, the foreign place was not allowed to become our home. That was a bad experience for me, because I was not allowed to conquer this small place for myself – unlike my brother, who is a year younger than me. He always met up with his German friends, he rode his bike, went ice-skating in winter or went to the mountains to ski. In the evenings he spent his life in the pubs. For him, Bückeburg is his true home to this day, because he was part of the public from the very first moment. Not for me. For me, Istanbul remains my home.
DM: You call Istanbul your home, even though you have lived in Germany for so many decades?
Dr. Necla Kelek: I lived in Istanbul as a child, I was able to build up a very close relationship with this city, not only in my private life but also in my social life. Back in the sixties, we were very intensively connected to Istanbul’s culture, went to concerts, theatres, cinemas, cafés, there was a lively beach life on the Bosporus. So home, where one feels secure and supported, is not only the private, domestic, but also the social, that one is part of public, cultural or political life.
DM: What is Hamburg for you then: a second home? A home of choice?
Dr. Necla Kelek: Hamburg is also my home. I studied there, made friends, formed relatives and was an active teacher in my professional life. And, yes, Hamburg has become another home, as well as Berlin, because I also lived there for a longer time and wrote my books. You absolutely have to want integration, otherwise you live separately from society. And of course, legal belonging to a country is also important. At some point, I applied for and received German citizenship. That was also a very important step. To know: Now I am part of this society. I have arrived. It’s so important to be part of working life, public life or cultural life, to belong. If the country you live in does not interest you – and is not allowed to interest you, for whatever reason, and your children are also prevented from being interested – then integration does not take place. In terms of integration, many things still need to be improved, but this country offers migrants enough opportunities. We just have to make use of them.
Interview Marie Wildermann