Conflicts, Limits and Opportunities of the German Society of Immigration in the Light of Career Biographies of Muslim and Non-Muslim Migrants

• Applicant: Dr. Johannes Jörg Hüttermann
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2017 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 328195135

The research project at hand deals with experiences of upwardly mobile migrants with and without attributed Muslim identity after having completed their secondary or tertiary education and/or their vocational training. In concrete terms it addresses how thirty to sixty year old migrants stemming from Italy and Turkey perceive conflicts, limits and opportunities within the context of their own social mobility. First of all, the focus is on the working sphere but to the extent that interviewees link this sphere to other areas the analysis will be broadened to include these areas as well (leisure time, civic participation, transnational relations etc.).The project pursues three successive and interrelated bundles of research questions: 1. What do upwardly mobile migrants see, when they look back at their career-oriented workinglife in the preceding years or when they anticipate their personal future? How do they sequence their career? What are the stations and regarded as of personal importance? 2. In which conflicts do these migrants regard themselves involved and to what kind of limitations and boundaries do they see themselves confronted with? How do they live positive turns and opportunities? 3. While in earlier times migrants mostly have been categorized as guest workers or foreigner nowadays some second-generation Migrants are not even identified as Migrants, whereas other second-generation Migrants - especially Migrants from Turkey - are seen as people stemming from different civilizations (Kulturkreis) or simply as Muslims. Does the change of the public categorization of migrants in Germany have repercussions on the migrants perception of their own social mobility?In practical and political terms the questions mentioned above concern every-day-life of migrants and social permeability of the German immigration society. In scientific terms the questions draw on desiderata of three research areas: social mobility, biographical studies, and conflict sociology. All three research areas pay rather little attention to how migrants experience their career-oriented working-life. Against the background of the Thomas-theorem this shows a certain bias. The project aims at correcting the bias by generating convincing results thus also contributing to bring the three areas closer together.In order to study the subject adequately the project follows the approach of a lifeworld-oriented conflict analysis which integrates phenomenological sociology and conflict sociology. The sampling builds on problem oriented interviews with a narrative-biographical introduction and expert interviews. The analysis recurs to Rosenthals approach to the reconstructing of life stories and to qua-litative content analysis.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants