More than half a century after Turkish workers first arrived in Germany, members of the community say they still face discrimination, identity struggles and an enduring pull toward their homeland.
Turkish citizens began migrating in the 1960s under labor agreements. In the Anadolu Agency (AA) documentary "Anatomy of Exile: Being Turkish in Germany," residents of this southwestern German town recount how prejudice has shaped their lives – from classrooms to workplaces – and how ties to Türkiye have remained strong across generations.
Fahriye Yıldız, the daughter of first-generation workers and now an interpreter for Turkish women, said she took on adult responsibilities early. Discrimination, she said, intensified after she began wearing a headscarf in 1992.
“A professor asked me, ‘What are you?’ I said, ‘I’m Turkish.’ He asked, ‘What’s your religion?’ I said, ‘Islam.’ He responded, ‘But I don’t see anything Islamic about you.’ That hit me hard. It made me ask: Who am I? Where do I belong?”
She said she has pushed back against prejudice but noted that many Germans still assume women in headscarves cannot speak the language.
Ercan Topak, brought to Germany at age 7 in 1976, works as a vocational trainer and sits on the local Foreigners’ Council. Raised in a Christian cultural environment, he said he did not fully embrace Islam until his 20s.
“As a Turk, you have to produce better quality work than a German to get the same job. You have to be better. You have to push harder,” he said.
He recalled Turkish children being steered into lower-tier schools, which he said forced some to work harder and later rise into leadership roles.
“Today, many CEOs and managers in Germany are Turkish. They toughened up because of those challenges. But it takes a lot of effort. Being visible is difficult.”
The emotional link to Türkiye, he added, has never faded.
“There’s not a single day in Germany when we don’t think about Türkiye. When we visit, the first thing we do is read the signs – I did it 40 years ago and I still do it today.”
Celil Sevencan, who migrated in 1978 and later built his own business, said Turks were treated as “third-class citizens” until the early 2000s. He recalled a 2004 fire in Mannheim that killed members of a Turkish family and drew support from then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
“The first generation worked 11 months a year – 10 to 12 hours a day, even weekends. They returned to Türkiye with Deutsche marks, but sometimes couldn’t even afford a proper meal with that money.”
For many in Heitersheim, decades of hard work have brought stability, but questions of belonging – and a longing for home – remain unresolved.
