Between ethnic options and ethnic boundaries : recent Polish and Turkish migrants' identification with Germany

Abstract

We describe migrants' early patterns of identification with the receiving society and explain why these differ by migrants' origins. Using longitudinal data from a novel survey among recent immigrants from Poland and Turkey in Germany enables us to analyse the nexus between social assimilation, ethnic boundaries and identification more directly than previous studies. Theoretically, we start out from assimilation theory and its assumption that migrants' identification with the receiving country is a consequence of their preceding social and cognitive assimilation and from the literature on ethnic boundaries. Results suggest that Turkish new migrants start out with higher levels of identification with Germany than Poles. Over time, however, their national identification decreases while it increases for Poles. This is partly explained by the fact that Turkish migrants' social assimilation stagnates; more importantly, only Turks perceive more rather than less discrimination and value incompatibility over time. While both groups' identificational integration with the receiving country thus starts out from different conditions, they do not show a fundamentally dissimilar pattern with respect to the consequences of assimilation and discrimination for their national identification. Yet, the negative impact of the latter is stronger for Turks than for Poles, reflecting the greater salience of ethnic boundaries for this group.