Turkish Islamic Associations in Germany and the Issue of European Citizenship

Abstract

Most research on questions of immigration and Europe regard immigrants as victims of ‘obscure forces they cannot understand’ (Leveau, 1989). These studies usually focus upon common European policies concerning the flow of immigrants, the uniformity of naturalisation requirements, or the definition of the right to asylum. In the following study, I choose an alternative point of view, not only dealing with the political management of the presence of foreign populations in Europe, but also studying the reactions of immigrant people themselves to the construction of the idea of ‘Europe’ and especially to the setting up of one of the most controversial aspects of the 1991 Maastricht Treaty on Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), the definition of European citizenship. Such an approach is premised on the idea that every study concerning migration necessarily involves structural issues such as citizenship, nationality, the capacity of nation-states as host-countries to assimilate a certain number of persons into the national area, and the recognition or acceptance of collective mediation.