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Papers by Miriam Geoghegan
"Diversity management", "equal opportunity", "gender", and "best practice models" are the keyword... more "Diversity management", "equal opportunity", "gender", and "best practice models" are the keywords that sum up the conference at which the present paper was delivered. The theme of the paper: How mentors act as cultural interpreters and bridge builders for disadvantaged migrant youth. The best-practice model in question: the "Individual Mentoring for Disadvantaged Youth During the Transition from School to Career" programme in Pforzheim, Germany. By way of preparation, I conducted 20 non-directive interviews with mentors, mentees and (other) experts. The present paper focuses on three particularly successful mentor-mentee tandems and their perception of the programme.
By way of preparation for a paper on the role of mentors as cultural interpreters and bridge buil... more By way of preparation for a paper on the role of mentors as cultural interpreters and bridge builders for migrant youth that I delivered at a conference in Austria in November 2009, I conducted 20 non-directive interviews with mentors, mentees and (other) experts involved in a mentoring programme for disadvantaged youth in Pforzheim, Germany. Six more interviews followed after the conference. At the request of the mentoring programme organisers, I subsequently analysed the interview data to determine the protagonists' main concerns and the way in which they subjectively present and evaluate the programme. The present paper summarises the results of this analysis.
Press release idw-online.de/pages/de/news191301 Translation: Education the key to success: award-... more Press release
idw-online.de/pages/de/news191301
Translation:
Education the key to success: award-winning master’s thesis reveals barriers to integration in Germany
Susanne Bossemeyer: Press and Public Relations
University of Hagen
10.01.2007
In her master’s thesis in sociology at the University of Hagen, Miriam Geoghegan dealt with a controversial subject. Her study, which has been awarded the prize for the best Cultural and Social Science Faculty thesis of 2006, focuses on integration barriers that migrants face. It deals in particular with obstacles that arise within the Turkish communities in Germany. Geoghegan is herself a migrant in Germany.
'Turks in Germany: Endogenous Integration Barriers, Their Causes and Consequences' is the title of the thesis that the Cultural and Social Science Faculty nominated for the award presented by the Society of Friends of the FernUniversität. Ms. Geoghegan’s mentor was Dr. Thomas Brüsemeister (Institute of Sociology). Rather than treating integration as a specifically ethnic – i.e. Turkish-German – matter, the author regards it as a transformation process from the traditional to the modern. From this vantage point, migrants have to integrate themselves, they cannot be integrated. By adopting this perspective, Geoghegan directs attention to hitherto neglected aspects of the problem such as Turkish migrants’ motivation to integrate and the question of whether Turkish communities facilitate or hamper integration.
In a secondary analysis of numerous quantitative and qualitive studies and biographical material, Geoghegan looks for answers to these questions. She focuses particularly on successfully integrated migrants and on the barriers that they themselves had to deal with. And she comes to the conclusion that exclusion by the host society is not the biggest problem that the many migrants who are actually willing to integrate have to face. On the contrary, the biggest obstacles are the barriers that the Turkish communities and families have erected. These have existed from the early days of Turkish migration to Germany and have since been consolidated. They arose because migrants wanted to reproduce their traditional culture.
According to Geoghegan’s hypothesis, some sections of the Turkish communities in Germany are pursuing incompatible goals. Integration in the job market and the educational system is very important to them. However, the conservation and reproduction of traditional culture is also of great importance. Individuality and close social ties with Germans are a prerequisite to achieving the first goal. Only then can migrants acquire the necessary cultural and social capital. The conservation and reproduction of the traditional social order, on the other hand, calls for the suppression of individuality and the restriction of social contacts with Germans.
The problem is that all the strategies that Turkish migrants use to conserve their traditional culture have an adverse effect on their professional, educational and social integration in Germany. Such strategies include the adherence to traditional methods of bringing up children and to traditional parenting values, strict social control, the consolidation of the Turkish communities, the persisting tendency to look for a spouse in Turkey, and, finally, stricter observance of the teachings of Islam.
With these strategies, Geoghegan concludes, Turkish migrants have succeeded to a large extent in reproducing their social group with all its attributes. At the same time, however, they have erected barriers that hamper social integration in Germany and the adoption of modern values. The price they have to pay – and the unintended consequence – is unsatisfactory integration in the German job market and the education system.
Geoghegan recalls that Germany finally completed its transition to a truly modern society only a few decades ago. It succeeded in making the transition because it had developed a culture of critical self-reflection. Families were transformed from households where the father gave the orders, to households where parents negotiate with their children. Modern German families encourage – and insist on – individuality. The catalyst for this development was increased access to second and third-level education. The author’s implicit conclusion is that Turkish integration in Germany can succeed only if their communites develop in the same way. Here, too, the key is education and critical self-reflection. Germany can, and must, contribute to paving the way to integration for Turkish migrants by promoting education and by requiring that Turkish migrants participate fully in the education system. It should also do all it can to foster the nascent culture of critical self-reflection among Turkish migrants.
Talks by Miriam Geoghegan
Irakische Yeziden in Pforzheim Die sexuellen Übergriffe junger Yeziden im Schwimmbad sorgten für... more Irakische Yeziden in Pforzheim
Die sexuellen Übergriffe junger Yeziden im Schwimmbad sorgten für Schlagzeilen. Junge Yezidinnen hingegen tauchen im öffentlichen Leben kaum auf und werden von der Geburt an auf ihre Rolle als Mutter und Hausfrau vorbereitet. Das Leben in einer modernen freizügigen Gesellschaft stürzt sie in Konflikte, die sie schlimmstenfalls mit dem Tod bezahlen.
Pforzheim (pop: 120 000) is the city in Baden-Württemberg (Germany) with the most refugees from I... more Pforzheim (pop: 120 000) is the city in Baden-Württemberg (Germany) with the most refugees from Iraq (>1600). The majority are Yezidis from the provinces of Niniveh and Dohuk. The authorities and the people of Pforzheim know very little about this persecuted religious minority. For the past year I have been conducting interviews with Yezidis, and with teachers, social workers etc who work with the Yezidi refugees; I have spent many hours observing school classes composed almost entirely of Yezidi children, and integration courses for their parents; I have conducted research into the Yezidi religion and traditions; and I have shared my findings in numerous talks for teachers, social workers, municipal employees, youth mentors etc. The leading Pforzheim daily, the Pforzheimer Zeitung, devoted a full page to the interview, which is a reflection of the interest in this topic and of the concern that the heavily indebted city's integration capacity will soon be overtaxed if Yezidis, who have little or no education, extremely large families, and who observe strict endogamy, continue to flock in large numbers to their relatives in Pforzheim.
Geoghegan begins her talk on a biographical note, drawing parallels between the barriers to perso... more Geoghegan begins her talk on a biographical note, drawing parallels between the barriers to personal development, self-determination and individualism that prevailed in the de-facto theocracy (Catholic Ireland) in which she grew up and those erected by traditional Muslim families in Germany. She then juxtaposes "tradition" and "modernity" as ideal types and expands on her thesis that integration is a process of transition from the traditional to the modern. Because people with a Turkish migrant background in Germany frequently complain that politicians demand "integration" without actually explaining what they mean by it, she analyses the various dimensions of the process, explaining why, in her view, it is not possible to leave any of these dimensions out. And finally she endeavours to allay Turkish migrants' fears that the internalisation of modern "German" values will be their undoing. She points out that the only values that migrants are obliged to internalise are those enshrined in the German constitution (or Basic Law / Grundgesetz): the inviolability of human dignity; the right to free development of the personality; equal rights for men and women; freedom of faith and conscience (which includes the freedom to leave a faith or to forgo religion); and freedom of expression. Referring to the recent "honour killing" in Hamburg of a young Afghan migrant, Morsal, whose only "crime" was that she wanted to "live like a German", Geoghegan points out that traditional families must realise that the above-mentioned basic rights laid down in Articles 1 to 5 of the Basic Law literally come before the right of parents to bring up their children that is set down in Article 6 of the German Basic Law. In other words, these parents must accept that their children have the right to live a modern, self-determined life. She concludes with a piece of wisdom from Goethe: "Children should get two things from their parents: roots and wings."
"Diversity management", "equal opportunity", "gender", and "best practice models" are the keyword... more "Diversity management", "equal opportunity", "gender", and "best practice models" are the keywords that sum up the conference at which the present paper was delivered. The theme of the paper: How mentors act as cultural interpreters and bridge builders for disadvantaged migrant youth. The best-practice model in question: the "Individual Mentoring for Disadvantaged Youth During the Transition from School to Career" programme in Pforzheim, Germany. By way of preparation, I conducted 20 non-directive interviews with mentors, mentees and (other) experts. The present paper focuses on three particularly successful mentor-mentee tandems and their perception of the programme.
By way of preparation for a paper on the role of mentors as cultural interpreters and bridge buil... more By way of preparation for a paper on the role of mentors as cultural interpreters and bridge builders for migrant youth that I delivered at a conference in Austria in November 2009, I conducted 20 non-directive interviews with mentors, mentees and (other) experts involved in a mentoring programme for disadvantaged youth in Pforzheim, Germany. Six more interviews followed after the conference. At the request of the mentoring programme organisers, I subsequently analysed the interview data to determine the protagonists' main concerns and the way in which they subjectively present and evaluate the programme. The present paper summarises the results of this analysis.
Press release idw-online.de/pages/de/news191301 Translation: Education the key to success: award-... more Press release
idw-online.de/pages/de/news191301
Translation:
Education the key to success: award-winning master’s thesis reveals barriers to integration in Germany
Susanne Bossemeyer: Press and Public Relations
University of Hagen
10.01.2007
In her master’s thesis in sociology at the University of Hagen, Miriam Geoghegan dealt with a controversial subject. Her study, which has been awarded the prize for the best Cultural and Social Science Faculty thesis of 2006, focuses on integration barriers that migrants face. It deals in particular with obstacles that arise within the Turkish communities in Germany. Geoghegan is herself a migrant in Germany.
'Turks in Germany: Endogenous Integration Barriers, Their Causes and Consequences' is the title of the thesis that the Cultural and Social Science Faculty nominated for the award presented by the Society of Friends of the FernUniversität. Ms. Geoghegan’s mentor was Dr. Thomas Brüsemeister (Institute of Sociology). Rather than treating integration as a specifically ethnic – i.e. Turkish-German – matter, the author regards it as a transformation process from the traditional to the modern. From this vantage point, migrants have to integrate themselves, they cannot be integrated. By adopting this perspective, Geoghegan directs attention to hitherto neglected aspects of the problem such as Turkish migrants’ motivation to integrate and the question of whether Turkish communities facilitate or hamper integration.
In a secondary analysis of numerous quantitative and qualitive studies and biographical material, Geoghegan looks for answers to these questions. She focuses particularly on successfully integrated migrants and on the barriers that they themselves had to deal with. And she comes to the conclusion that exclusion by the host society is not the biggest problem that the many migrants who are actually willing to integrate have to face. On the contrary, the biggest obstacles are the barriers that the Turkish communities and families have erected. These have existed from the early days of Turkish migration to Germany and have since been consolidated. They arose because migrants wanted to reproduce their traditional culture.
According to Geoghegan’s hypothesis, some sections of the Turkish communities in Germany are pursuing incompatible goals. Integration in the job market and the educational system is very important to them. However, the conservation and reproduction of traditional culture is also of great importance. Individuality and close social ties with Germans are a prerequisite to achieving the first goal. Only then can migrants acquire the necessary cultural and social capital. The conservation and reproduction of the traditional social order, on the other hand, calls for the suppression of individuality and the restriction of social contacts with Germans.
The problem is that all the strategies that Turkish migrants use to conserve their traditional culture have an adverse effect on their professional, educational and social integration in Germany. Such strategies include the adherence to traditional methods of bringing up children and to traditional parenting values, strict social control, the consolidation of the Turkish communities, the persisting tendency to look for a spouse in Turkey, and, finally, stricter observance of the teachings of Islam.
With these strategies, Geoghegan concludes, Turkish migrants have succeeded to a large extent in reproducing their social group with all its attributes. At the same time, however, they have erected barriers that hamper social integration in Germany and the adoption of modern values. The price they have to pay – and the unintended consequence – is unsatisfactory integration in the German job market and the education system.
Geoghegan recalls that Germany finally completed its transition to a truly modern society only a few decades ago. It succeeded in making the transition because it had developed a culture of critical self-reflection. Families were transformed from households where the father gave the orders, to households where parents negotiate with their children. Modern German families encourage – and insist on – individuality. The catalyst for this development was increased access to second and third-level education. The author’s implicit conclusion is that Turkish integration in Germany can succeed only if their communites develop in the same way. Here, too, the key is education and critical self-reflection. Germany can, and must, contribute to paving the way to integration for Turkish migrants by promoting education and by requiring that Turkish migrants participate fully in the education system. It should also do all it can to foster the nascent culture of critical self-reflection among Turkish migrants.
Irakische Yeziden in Pforzheim Die sexuellen Übergriffe junger Yeziden im Schwimmbad sorgten für... more Irakische Yeziden in Pforzheim
Die sexuellen Übergriffe junger Yeziden im Schwimmbad sorgten für Schlagzeilen. Junge Yezidinnen hingegen tauchen im öffentlichen Leben kaum auf und werden von der Geburt an auf ihre Rolle als Mutter und Hausfrau vorbereitet. Das Leben in einer modernen freizügigen Gesellschaft stürzt sie in Konflikte, die sie schlimmstenfalls mit dem Tod bezahlen.
Pforzheim (pop: 120 000) is the city in Baden-Württemberg (Germany) with the most refugees from I... more Pforzheim (pop: 120 000) is the city in Baden-Württemberg (Germany) with the most refugees from Iraq (>1600). The majority are Yezidis from the provinces of Niniveh and Dohuk. The authorities and the people of Pforzheim know very little about this persecuted religious minority. For the past year I have been conducting interviews with Yezidis, and with teachers, social workers etc who work with the Yezidi refugees; I have spent many hours observing school classes composed almost entirely of Yezidi children, and integration courses for their parents; I have conducted research into the Yezidi religion and traditions; and I have shared my findings in numerous talks for teachers, social workers, municipal employees, youth mentors etc. The leading Pforzheim daily, the Pforzheimer Zeitung, devoted a full page to the interview, which is a reflection of the interest in this topic and of the concern that the heavily indebted city's integration capacity will soon be overtaxed if Yezidis, who have little or no education, extremely large families, and who observe strict endogamy, continue to flock in large numbers to their relatives in Pforzheim.
Geoghegan begins her talk on a biographical note, drawing parallels between the barriers to perso... more Geoghegan begins her talk on a biographical note, drawing parallels between the barriers to personal development, self-determination and individualism that prevailed in the de-facto theocracy (Catholic Ireland) in which she grew up and those erected by traditional Muslim families in Germany. She then juxtaposes "tradition" and "modernity" as ideal types and expands on her thesis that integration is a process of transition from the traditional to the modern. Because people with a Turkish migrant background in Germany frequently complain that politicians demand "integration" without actually explaining what they mean by it, she analyses the various dimensions of the process, explaining why, in her view, it is not possible to leave any of these dimensions out. And finally she endeavours to allay Turkish migrants' fears that the internalisation of modern "German" values will be their undoing. She points out that the only values that migrants are obliged to internalise are those enshrined in the German constitution (or Basic Law / Grundgesetz): the inviolability of human dignity; the right to free development of the personality; equal rights for men and women; freedom of faith and conscience (which includes the freedom to leave a faith or to forgo religion); and freedom of expression. Referring to the recent "honour killing" in Hamburg of a young Afghan migrant, Morsal, whose only "crime" was that she wanted to "live like a German", Geoghegan points out that traditional families must realise that the above-mentioned basic rights laid down in Articles 1 to 5 of the Basic Law literally come before the right of parents to bring up their children that is set down in Article 6 of the German Basic Law. In other words, these parents must accept that their children have the right to live a modern, self-determined life. She concludes with a piece of wisdom from Goethe: "Children should get two things from their parents: roots and wings."