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Sample Student
final answers 2013 (2013 final exam assignment) #1: Research Reports |
LITR 4333
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Fariha Khalil
November 11, 2013
Turkish Americans
I chose to study Turkish
Americans for my research topic.
I chose this certain group because, to my
knowledge, Turkey is a Muslim country, and I am a Muslim.
I am looking to see if the immigrants from Turkey
had the same experience as my family did when we moved to this new world.
Were they easily accepted in this new society or
were they harassed for who they were, and where they came from.
I understand that not all Turkish Americans are
Muslims, but the ones who are Muslim, were they able to assimilate with the
dominant culture without any problem.
I emphasized Muslim Turkish Americans because, to
my family and I, religion is very important, and that is why even after being an
American, we still stand out from the dominant culture. Was religion very
important to Muslim Turkish Americans as well, or were they willing to put
religion aside and join in with the dominant culture?
According to the newsletter
of the American Turkish Society, “the history of Turkish American immigration to
the United States is not well documented and is generally unknown”.
Just like from other countries, Turkish immigrants
came to the United States to seek religious freedom, opportunities for education
and their “primary motive”, to seek “economic opportunities”.
It is said in this newsletter that the early
Turkish immigrants who came to the United States were illiterate.
According to historian Talat Sait Halman, among
this group of immigrants, the ones who were very well educated, eventually
returned back to Turkey, and the “less-educated” stayed here in the United
States.
These immigrants who stayed, brought their customs and
traditions with them and practiced them, instead of assimilating with the
dominant culture right away. Since the 1970s, the number of Turkish immigrants
has risen to more than 2,000 per year. Members of this most recent immigrant
group vary widely. Many opened small businesses in the United States and created
Turkish American organizations, thus developing Turkish enclaves, particularly
in New York City. Still others came for educational purposes.
According to the Middle East
Journal article:
Identity across Generations: A Turkish American Case Study
by Ilhan Kaya, during the early Turkish immigration to the United States, many
immigrants have settled in or around large urban centers, some settled in New
York, Boston, Chicago, and Detroit. Other Turkish Americans settled along the
East Coast in Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, and some found
their way into Minnesota, Indiana, Texas, and Alabama.
According to Kaya, these Turkish Americans in the
United States were considered first generation Turkish Americans.
They valued their religion and culture very much,
and most came to the United States for education, and then went back to Turkey.
Kaya says that he interviewed a Turkish
American mother who has lived in the Unite States for 17 years now, and her
justification for celebrating Christmas and Thanksgiving, regarding her religion
as being a Muslim.
She said “For the first ten years, I did not want
to cook turkey during Thanksgivings because I thought that it was an American
holiday.
My children always asked me about it, but I always
rejected it.
We had American friends over, and it did not feel right to
have guests but not cook a turkey.
I have been cooking turkey for my children and
guests in the last couple of years.
I have also been thinking about having Christmas
lights, as Christmas and Ramadan have been around the same time in the last few
years.
In Turkey, people have lights during the month of Ramadan.
I am thinking about having those this year.
Over time, you take a lot
of things from a culture if you think they don’t conflict with your cultural
values. The things that you take are things from
civilization.
Civilization is different from culture”.
And she is considered a very religious lady
compared to other Turkish Americans who are very much westernized.
After reading this, I was not really surprised of
the lady’s justification on celebrating Christmas, and Thanksgiving.
My
family cooks turkey on Thanksgiving as well, but we cook it and get together
with friends because, Thanksgiving is not a religious holiday.
But, Christmas on the other hand with all due
respect is a Christian religious holiday, and therefore we, being Muslims do not
put out lights, or celebrate it in anyway; it does not matter if Ramadan falls
during Christmas.
Kaya states that practicing religious
Turkish Americans are caught in the middle of all their old customs and values
that they bring from Turkey, and the new customs found here in the new world.
They try to combine the similarities between the
two customs, so they do not have to give up their own values, and yet fit in
with the new world.
After doing research, I have learned
that religion is important to some Turkish Americans, while it is not to others.
Even though, they call themselves Muslims, most
Turkish Americans do not practice their religion.
To them it is easier to accept the customs of this
new world.
I believe the reason they do this is to not stand out from
the dominant culture; blending in with the dominant culture is very important to
them.
I wanted to see if my thoughts about assimilating with the
religion was also going to be the same for the Turkish Americans, and what I
learned is that, yes, although a great number of them are very westernized,
there are some religious Turkish Americans who are practicing Muslims, and do
not assimilate with their religion.
For Muslims, culture is based on religion, and if
one is a practicing Muslim, they will also have difficulties assimilating to the
dominant culture of this new world.
In conclusion,
religion is a very big aspect for immigrants who come to the United States to
live.
One can assimilate with the lifestyle of the dominant
culture, one can learn the new language, but one thing that most immigrants have
trouble assimilating, is religion.
I have lived in the United States for about 13
years now, and my family has assimilated with the language, and lifestyle, but
we have not assimilated with our religion one bit.
That is why I mentioned earlier, even after being
an American; we still stand out from the dominant culture.
I wanted to see if Turkish Americans valued
religion as much as my family does.
After some research, I came to learn that there are
some Turkish Americans, to whom, religion is very important, and to some it is
easier to assimilate with the dominant culture.
Work Cited
Halman, Talat Sait. "Turks,"
Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups.
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1980.
Kaya, Ilhan “Identity across generations: A Turkish American
Case Study”, The Middle East Journal, Jan 1, 2009 muse.jhu.edu
Quarterly newsletter of the American Turkish Society.
