Reconsidering Identity: The ethnic and political dimensions of hybridity among majority and Turkish youth in Germany and England

Abstract

Sociological research has hitherto largely focused on majority and minority ethnic identities or citizenship identities. However, the social connections between youth are not simply ethnic dynamics but also political dynamics involving citizenship categories. This article argues that in postmodern societies, it is important to reconsider the ways we think about youth identities. Drawing upon qualitative data from a study into the political identities of majority (German and British) youth and Turkish youth, educated in two Stuttgart and two London secondary schools, the research found that fifteen-year-olds had no singular identity but hybrid ethnonational, ethno-local and national-European identities as a result of governmental policies, their schooling and community experience, social class positioning, ethnicity and migration history. In working-class educational contexts,many majority and Turkish youth privileged the ethnic dimension of hybridity whereas majority and Turkish youth in the two middle-class dominated schools emphasized the political dimension of hybridity. The article demonstrates that social class and schooling (e.g. ethos and peer cultures) have a considerable role to play in who can afford to take on the more hybridized cosmopolitan identities on offer.