Written by : Daniel Meier, Junior Professor GMO Borders, Cerdap2, Sciences Po Grenoble-UGA.
On Tuesday, October 15, 2024, two Turkish doctoral students, Elif Aktas-Çelik and Merve Özkaya, organized an exciting study day at Sciences Po Grenoble-UGA, with the active support of the Cerdap2 laboratory. Pooling their resources and mobilizing their networks, the two doctoral students, from the University of Strasbourg and Sciences Po-UGA respectively, succeeded in putting together three panels bringing together around ten young researchers in the final stages of their thesis. A scientific committee comprising Samim Akgönül (DRES, Director of the Turkish Studies Department and professor at the University of Strasbourg), Stéphane de Tapia (professor emeritus at the University of Strasbourg) and Jean Marcou (professor emeritus at Sciences Po Grenoble-UGA and member of Cerdap2) supervised the organizers and played an active role in moderating the day's panels. The result was a resounding success, in keeping with the effort and enthusiasm put into preparing and running the day. The success of the event can also be attributed to the conscientiousness of the participants, who held their panels within the allotted time and in a convivial yet serious discursive atmosphere, and to the audience, largely made up of students from the Master MMO program at Sciences Po Grenoble-UGA, who attentively followed the debates, thus gaining privileged access to the scientific work in progress.
The object of study, Turkish communities in France, offers an interesting paradox from the outset: its quantitative importance, with around 800,000 Turks in France, is inversely proportional to our knowledge of the phenomenon. After all, this is the second largest Turkish population in the European Union, after Germany, which, as we know, is the focus of much more attention. In this context, the seminar offered a welcome and original insight into little-studied groups of actors from Turkey. Their ethnic and religious diversity (Kurds, Alevis, etc.) can be read, as proposed by Samim Akgönül in his inaugural lecture, in an intersectional way, i.e. by highlighting the role of work and workers since 1948, the family and in particular the growing role of women and culture, the political field with the minority status of the but also with the politicization of Turkish communities and finally brain migration.
In order to study the transformations of Turkish communities in the diaspora, this study day was organized around three themes. The first, moderated by Samim Akgönül, focused on the identity constructions and strategies of Turks in France. Merve Özkaya (Cerdap2, Sciences Po Grenoble-UGA) opened the first panel by presenting the first sociological contribution, analyzing the complex trajectories of 'community defectors' who break away from and rebuild their identities in relation to the group to which they belong.
Elif Aktas-Çelik (LinCS, University of Strasbourg) focused on the migration of highly-qualified citizens who possess socio-cultural specificities where secular orientation, international capital and employability criteria make them ideal candidates for brain migration to France. Yiğit Binzet (University of Galatasaray), in a remote presentation, elaborated on a similar theme, that of the relationships forged in the migratory space, particularly since the post-Gezi wave (2013), which has sometimes been misrepresented as simply a brain drain and which will form, he told us, 'a new island in the archipelago of Turks in France'. Kerem Görkem Arslan (DRES, University of Strasbourg) proposed a reflection on the identity dynamics of Turks in Alsace in relation to their migratory path, showing that the preservation of the idea of homeland (Turkey) was not contradictory with a certain cultural mixing, taking the case of Bischwiller as a microcosm of this mix in act.
A second panel on the politicization of Turks in migration was introduced by Stéphane de Tapia, who questioned the categorization of actors before allowing Ségolène Débarre (Maîtresse de Conférence, Université Paris 1- Panthéon Sorbonne) to present a cartographic perspective of the Turkish associative landscape in France, which raised several questions as to its demarcation while noting the importance of visualizing, through maps, a reality that deserves to be better known. Halil Yiğit (IFG, Université Paris 8) examined the introduction of remote voting, signalling the emergence of a transnational partisan political field and highlighting the development of political socialization and a protest repertoire. Mehtap Ergünöz (DRES, University of Strasbourg) proposed a third point of support in this panel, once again giving a central place to space by looking at cross-border relations in Turkish communities in the Franco-German border zone, a promising reflection that deserves to be pursued, particularly in a comparative way.
The third and final panel featured three studies on minority diasporic identities, moderated by Jean Marcou. Tony Rublon (ATER, Migrinter - Université de Poitiers) reflected on the field of exile of Kurdish migrants, studying transnational circulations and practices from a multiscalar reading starting from the Lavio camp (Greece), perceived by migrants as a piece of Kurdistan where Kurds return to reconnect with militancy and their identity, even though they are settled elsewhere in Europe. Rémi Carcélès (MESOPOLHIS, Aix-Marseilles), a former MMO Master's student and graduate of Sciences Po Grenoble- UGA, focused on Kurdish mobilizations in France, i.e. the importation of Kurdish militancy into the French microcosm through the careers of cause entrepreneurs from various Kurdish movements. Finally, Sarah Guerfi (DRES, University of Strasbourg) explored, from a distance and via a pre-recorded message, the identity claims of Turkish Assyro-Chaldeans in the Paris region and the efforts made by this Turkish minority to preserve its heritage through educational, cultural and political actions.
The study day concluded with a few words from the new director of the Parcours Méditerranée Moyen-Orient (MMO), Professor Daniel Meier (Sciences Po Grenoble-UGA, Cerdap2). He recalled that the complexity of identity relations in migration is at the heart of the study issues presented throughout the day, noting also the key role played by space, both in representations and in its effects on practices. Finally, he noted the positive and open tone of the debates that the presentations had generated, congratulating the organizers and all participants on their efforts to further scientific knowledge about Turkish communities living in France.