Recently, the article “Methodische Zugänge zur diskursiven Einbettung im transnationalen Raum – Eine Analyse der diskursiven Reaktionen türkeistämmiger Verbände auf den Anschlag von Hanau” (Methodological approaches to discursive embedding in transnational space – an analysis of the discursive reactions of associations of Turkish origin to the Hanau attack) was recently published in the anthology “Migrationsforschung (Inter)-Disziplinär – Eine anwendungsorientierte Einführung” (Migration research (inter)disciplinary – an objection-oriented introduction), edited by Merve Schmitz-Vardar, Andrea Rumpel, Alexandra Graevskaia and Laura Dinnebier.
The contribution is dedicated to the question of how discourse-analytical approaches can be opened up into the field of migrant discourse actors at the meso-level. In this specific case, the discursive reactions of migrant organizations of Turkish origin to the racist attack in Hanau on February 19, 2020, are examined with the aim of gaining insights into the organizations’ self-perception/construction. Thus, in addition to a thematic reception of racist violence from a Turkish-descended perspective, the main question is to what extent the aspect of transnational embeddings of migrant organizations can be grasped from a discourse-theoretical perspective.
Here an excerpt:
The results of the analysis show that the Turkey-originated Migrant Organizations (TMO) see themselves fundamentally as part of the German immigration society. In the superficial self-portrayal, references to origin initially play a subordinate role and are, if at all, brought into line with the diversity and variety of German society. However, the self-identification of the TMO in primarily German social contexts is not accompanied by the perception of equal treatment. The fact that this state of affairs can be traced back to factors of origin – and in particular to Turkish origin – can be seen from an examination of the interweaving of discourses and the interconnections of statements used, not least from a reflection on the attack in Hanau. Although the press releases are fundamentally directed at the German public as a whole, the results of the detailed analysis indicate that the discursive actions are primarily oriented toward special knowledge and argumentation formations of the context of Turkish origin. Compared to the discourses of Turkey or the Federal Republic of Germany, these knowledge formations have different evaluations/weightings of sociopolitical events. The most striking example of this is the creation of a narrative about racist violence from the Attacks of Solingen (1993) to the NSU-murders (2000-2007) to Hanau-shootings (2020). This narrative not only focuses on the continuity of right-wing extremist attacks in Germany, it also underlines patterns of perception of being targeted victims of racist violence because of having a Turkish origin. Contrary to a practice of argumentation based on the knowledge formation of exclusively German or Turkish social discourse, the TMO thus initially act from a “Turkish” discourse logic. The discursive embedding of TMO is therefore not to be understood as a deviation from the German social discourse, but rather integrated into it in the form of a migrant-Turkish sub-discourse. The transnational influences on the discursive actions of TMO are therefore much less evident in the latency of the references to the host society or society of origin than in the argumentation structures that are produced, which are based on a blending/mixing of various discursive influences in a separate (possibly diaspora-internal) subdiscourse. Thus, it can be observed that – at least on the meso level – a new form of discursive socialization in the sense of the concept of transnationalization is taking place, in which community-specific knowledge and the resulting interconnections of statements have a certain relevance for action.
Söylemez, Seçkin (2022). Methodische Zugänge zur diskursiven Einbettung im transnationalen Raum. Eine Analyse der diskursiven Reaktionen türkeistämmiger Verbände auf den Anschlag von Hanau. In: Merve Schmitz-Vardar/ Andrea Rumpel/ Alexandra Graevskaia/ Laura Dinnebier (Eds.), Migrationsforschung (inter)disziplinär (51-78). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839460948-004
Read the full text here (German) and click for this post in German.
