The Slow Americanization of Turkish Americans
"Majority of Turkish Americans are naturalized US citizens and
some are planning to be as soon as they meet their residency requirements"
Sema Karaoglu, Daughters_of_Ataturk@yahoo.com, www.DofA.org - Turkish American immigration to North America, particularly to the United States started in the 1880s. These early Ottoman Turkish immigrants settled mostly in the East Coast and within a few decades were completely absorbed into the American culture so much so that most of their descendants today vaguely have a notion that they have a Turkish ancestor. These early immigrants came to the US for economic reasons, to work, to save money, to return to their homeland and to live out the rest of their years in relative ease. Stories of streets New York or Chicago paved with gold had brought on a different kind of gold rush from the heartland of Anatolia. Many of these immigrants had never ventured out beyond their towns let alone out of Anatolia. They were lured by agents of labor groups and the incentives and the pictures they offered were too much to resist. According to some studies there were some 80,000 Turks in the 1880s in the East Coast.

They were housed in boarding houses, worked and lived with their compatriots. Many of them never integrated into the American main stream. They were bachelors and kept to themselves. Few who had married American women accepted their wives' religion, changed their names and were lost as Turks within a few years.

In the heyday of Hollywood, many young men came with high hopes of becoming the next Valentino. Some got small walk-on parts in the motion pictures, some made a few movies, but mostly they became small businessmen that dotted the famous Hollywood Boulevard with their small shops.

This was pretty much the immigration trend until early 1950s. The immigrants from 1950s on were, in general, highly educated men, some women, and some families. When female equality was a novelty in the US, these highly educated Turkish women were accepted by their US male counterparts as equals. After all, they were immigrants and posed no threat neither to the male dominated fields nor to their egos. The 50s immigrants were doctors, the 60s engineers, etc. So much so that one could almost tell the profession of a Turkish immigrant from the year he or she immigrated to the US.

Many Turkish immigrants also came to the US as students, returned to Turkey after the completion of their studies, but immigrated back to the US within a few years. These highly qualified immigrants were lured back to the US for economic opportunities and personal reasons. Some were bachelors who married their American college sweethearts; some came to the US with their families and settled mostly in the East Coast or Midwest.

Immigration to California and the West really took off after the 1970s. Most who came out to the West were again engineers, nuclear and/or space engineers, scientists, and professors.

With the beginning of the US Lottery System, more and more Turkish immigrants of all walks of life began arriving in the US. Most of these immigrants are blue-collar workers and most own their own businesses.

As most other immigrants, the Turkish Americans dreamed of going back to their homeland one day. Most never became integrated into the American way of life. As the Turkish immigrants came to the US out of their freewill, Americaniza-tion was not an option. They were comfortable, they earned a good living, they had their families and dreamed of going back one day. Their ties to their homeland were not cut. Summers were spent in Turkey as much as possible, they still had families there and the children were sent to their grandparents to spend their summer.

Most other immigrants had none of these. They were here to stay, become part of mainstream America. They had shared wars (WWI and WWII), felt the nationalistic feelings of other Americans. The Turkish Americans did not go through a war; they did not share these feelings. I believe there were no Turkish Americans during the Korean War [TT's Note: American Turkish Veterans' Association (ATVA)'s second-generation Turkish-American Bill Alli is one of them] and only a handful during the Vietnam War. They were happy to be here, they were liked by their peers but they were still Turks at heart.

However, patterns began to change in early 1990s. The Turkish immigrants are becoming Americanized, both in their way of life and immigration status. One is no longer seen as a traitor if one naturalizes, on the contrary, the Turkish government urges Turkish immigrants to become citizens of the country they live in. The Turkish American immigrants realize that by becoming citizens they have a voice in America. They are no longer the stepchildren. They feel that they are part of the mainstream. Their outlook has changed. Many have children, grandchildren or even great grandchildren who were born in this country. Many are mixed marriage couples and their children are half Turkish, half American or half another ethnic group. They continue to name their children with Turkish names but try also to name them with a name that is not so difficult to pronounce or a combination of Turkish and English names. With so many other ethnic names in the US, Turkish names are not out of this world, as they once seemed to be. Turkish Americans no longer live in self-imposed boundaries as the early immigrants of 1880s. Today, they are in inner cities, urban and suburban areas. Some are settled in small university towns where they teach but a majority of them are in large metropolitan areas. They are found in all 50 states, the District of Colombia and other US territories and possessions.