The first Turks settled in France during the 16th and 17th century as galley slaves and merchants from the Ottoman Empire;[5][6] the historian Ina Baghdiantz McCabe has described Marseille as a "Turkish town" during this time.[7] According to Jean Marteilhe "…the Turks of Asia and Europe...of whom there are a great many in the galley of France, who have been made slaves by the Imperialists, and sold to the French to man their galleys… are generally well-made, fair in feature, wise in their conduct, zealous in the observance of their religion, honourable and charitable in the highest degree. I have seen them give away all the money they possessed to buy a bird in a cage that they might have the pleasure of giving it its liberty".[8]
Turkish migration from the Republic of Turkey
France signed a bilateral labour recruitment agreement with Turkey on 8 May 1965[9] because the number of entrants from other countries such as Italy, Spain and Portugal was not sufficient.[10] By 1975 there were 55,710 Turkish workers living in France,[10] this had almost quadrupled to 198,000 in 1999.[11] The majority of Turkish immigrants came from rural areas of Turkey, especially from central Anatolia.[12]
Whilst the majority of Turkish immigrants came during the recruitment agreement, many also came much earlier. For example, even in areas with fewer immigration waves, Cholet had an established Turkish community since 1945.[13]
Turkish migration from other post-Ottoman countries
Whilst the majority of French Turks originate from the modern borders of the Republic of Turkey, there are also significant Turkish-Algerian and Turkish-Tunisian communities which arrived in the France once the Ottoman rule ended with the French colonization of North Africa as well as some who arrived after the formation of the modern borders of Algeria and Tunisia.[citation needed]
In addition to living in the biggest French cities, there are also large Turkish communities in smaller towns and villages. Bischwiller, in Alsace, is often dubbed "Turkwiller" due to its large Turkish community.[19] The Turks also make up approximately 15% of the population in Châteaubriant (2014 est.)[20] and 17% of the population in Flers.[21]
Population
Official data on the total number of French Turks is not available because the French census only records statistics on the country of birth rather than one's ethnic affiliation. Numerous estimates since the 2010s placed the Turkish-French population at around 1 million,[1][22][23] or over 1 million.[24] By 2020 estimates have continued to suggest more than 1 million[2] to as much as 1.9 million French Turks.[citation needed]
As early as 2002, Professor Remy Leveau and Professor Shireen T. Hunter said that official statistics on the Turkish community "may be too small" and had estimated the number of Turks to be 500,000.[25] By 2014 Professor Pierre Vermeren reported in L'Express that the Turkish population was around 800,000.[26] However, an earlier report by Dr Jean-Gustave Hentz and Dr Michel Hasselmann in 2010 had already estimated that there was 1 million Turks living in France.[1] Similarly, Professor İzzet Er,[22] and the French-Armenian politician Garo Yalic (who is an advisor to Valerie Boyer),[27] also said that there was 1,000,000 Turks in France in 2011 and 2012 respectively.
More recently, numerous reports have suggested that the Turkish-French population exceeds one million, including Le Petit Journal in 2019[24] and Marianne in 2020.[2] By 2021, Joëlle Garriaud-Maylam also said that there was over 1 million Turks in France during her speech at the Senate.[3]
Birth rates
Although the birth rates among Turks living in France has declined over the years they remain substantially higher than the French population. In 1982, the average number of children for Turks was 5.2, compared with 1.8 for the French population. By 1990, the average number of births for Turks was 3.7 compared to 1.7 for the French population.[28]
In 2000, Mehmet-Ali Akıncı and Harriet Jisa found that Turkish is spoken exclusively at home by 77% of families, while 68% of children speak French to one another.[29] Turkish children are monolingual in the Turkish language until they start school at the age of 2 or 3; thus, they find themselves in everyday situations in which they have to speak French with their peers.[30] By the age of 10, most children become dominant in the French language.[31] Nonetheless, even for those who use French more than Turkish in their daily lives, numerous studies have shown that they still emphasize the importance of Turkish as the language of the family, particularly for raising children.[32] Thus, there is a high degree of language maintenance in the Turkish community; frequent holidays to Turkey, the easy access and use of Turkish media, and the density of social networks help maintain their language.[33]
The majority of Turks adhere to Islam and focus on creating their own mosques and schools, most of which are tightly linked to Turkey. Thus, Turks worship their religion mainly with others within their community.[34] Due to Turkish immigrants having a strong link to the Turkish state and much less knowledge of the French language, compared to other Muslim immigrants who have emigrated from French-speaking countries, Turks tend to build mosques where sermons are given in Turkish rather than French or Arabic.[35]
The Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DİTİB), which is a branch of the Turkish state Bureau of Religious Affairs (the Diyanet),[35] promotes a "Turkish Islam" which is based upon a moderate, rational Islam of a secular state.[36] The Diyanet has organic links to the "Coordination Committee of Muslim Turks in France", or CCMTF, (French: Comité de coordination des musulmans turcs de France)[37] which brings under its umbrella a total of 210 mosques.[38] Its major competing network of mosques is run by the Millî Görüş movement (French: Communauté Islamique du Milli Görüş de France) which emphasizes the importance of solidarity of the community over integration into French society.[35] The Millî Görüş has an estimated 70 mosques in France.[35][38]
Integration
The Turkish community is considered to be the least integrated immigrant community in France,[15] largely due to their strong attachment to their country of origin.[39] However, there is increasing recognition by Turkish officials that without successful integration the immigrant community cannot lobby for the home country.[39] For example, in 2010, the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stressed that assimilation is different from integration and urged the Turkish community in France to integrate by applying for French citizenship.[40]
Discrimination
Discrimination against Turks in French society is seen particularly within the labour market when they are looking for jobs. Given a choice between a Turkish and a French with the same qualifications, French employers tend not to choose the immigrant applicant.[41][42]
"Fransa Türk Federasyonu", the French Turks Federation.[44]
"Migrations et cultures de Turquie" (ELELE), promoted knowledge of Turkish immigration and helps to assist the integration of Turkish migrants into French society.[45]
Non-fiction Turkish-French writers include Elif Shafak who was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2010;[57] the novelist Nedim Gürsel who teaches contemporary Turkish literature at the Sorbonne;[58]Seyhan Kurt who is a poet, writer, anthropologist and sociologist; and the novelist Kenizé Mourad who descends from the exiled Ottoman royal family and is of partial Turkish descent; her bestselling book Regards from the Dead Princess: Novel of a Life sold more than 3 million copies in France and tells the story of the end of the Ottoman Empire through the eyes of her mother Princess Selma.[59]
In fashion, the designer Ece Ege co-founded the Paris-based high fashion brand Dice Kayek with her sister Ayşe Ege; they won the prestigious Jameel Prize at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2013.[60]
In addition to the substantial number of contributions made by French citizens of Turkish origin who descend from Turkey and the Maghreb, there are also notable French Turks who have backgrounds from other former Ottoman territories.
Some ethnic Turks living in France have also come from the Turkish diaspora communities (i.e. from countries that were not part of the former Ottoman Empire), especially Morocco but also from other countries with a large Turkish immigrant community.
The majority of French-Moroccans with Turkish roots are from the Turkish-Algerian diaspora and Turkish-Tunisian diaspora. For example, Leïla Chellabi is a Morocco-born writer whose father was a Turkish Algerian who obtained French citizenship.[74] Furthermore, the Moroccan-born French businessman Ali Bourequat is from a Turkish-Tunisian family.[75]
^ abcHentz, Jean-Gustave; Hasselmann, Michel (2010). Transculturalité, religion, traditions autour de la mort en réanimation. Springer-Verlag France. doi:10.1007/978-2-287-99072-4_33. ISBN978-2-287-99072-4. La France d'aujourd'hui est une société multiculturelle et multiethnique riche de 4,9 millions de migrants représentant environ 8 % de la population du pays. L'immigration massive de populations du sud de l'Europe de culture catholique après la deuxième guerre mondiale a été suivie par l'arrivée de trois millions d'Africains du Nord, d'un million de Turcs et de contingents importants d'Afrique Noire et d'Asie qui ont implanté en France un islam majoritairement sunnite (Maghrébins et Africains de l'Ouest) mais aussi chiite (Pakistanais et Africains de l'Est).
^ abcGallard, Joseph; Nguyen, Julien (2020), "Il est temps que la France appelle à de véritables sanctions contre le jeu d'Erdogan", Marianne, archived from the original on 14 February 2021, retrieved 25 November 2020, ... et ce grâce à la nombreuse diaspora turque, en particulier en France et en Allemagne. Ils seraient environ un million dans l'Hexagone, si ce n'est plus...es raisons derrière ne sont pas difficiles à deviner : l'immense population turque en Allemagne, estimée par Merkel elle-même aux alentours de sept millions et qui ne manquerait pas de se faire entendre si l'Allemagne prenait des mesures allant à l'encontre de la Turquie.
^ abContrat d'objectifs et de moyens (COM) 2020-2022 de France Médias Monde: Mme Joëlle Garriaud-Maylam, co-rapporteur, Sénat, 2021, retrieved 7 May 2021, Enfin, comme vous l'avez dit au sujet de la Turquie, il est essentiel que la France investisse davantage dans les langues qui sont parlées sur le territoire national. On recense plus d'un million de Turcs en France. Ils ne partagent pas toujours nos objectifs et nos valeurs, parce qu'ils subissent l'influence d'une presse qui ne nous est pas toujours très favorable. Il est donc très utile de les prendre en compte dans le développement de nos médias.
^"La population étrangère résidant en France: Infos migrations" [The foreign population residing in France: Migration information] (in French). immigration.gouv.fr. October 2009. Archived from the original on 27 November 2010. ... ressortissants d'origine asiatique augmente, malgré une baisse du nombre des Cambodgiens, Laotiens et Vietnamiens. Cela s'explique par une présence accrue des Turcs, mais surtout de celle des ressortissants chinois ... ou plus généralement d'un autre pays d'Asie.
^ abFransa Diyanet İşleri Türk İslam Birliği. "2011 YILI DİTİB KADIN KOLLARI GENEL TOPLANTISI PARİS DİTİB'DE YAPILDI". Retrieved 2012-02-15. İzzet ER Hocamız konuşmasında katılımcıları selamladıktan sonra, Fransa'da resmi verilere göre, 550 bin Türk nüfusunun bulunduğunu, bu sayının gayrı resmi olarak 1 milyon civarında tahmin edildiğini söyledi.[dead link]
^Vermeren, Pierre[in French] (2014). "Face à l'islam de France, du déni à la paralysie". Retrieved 28 October 2020. Depuis dix ans, ce chiffre est régulièrement ben brèche: les estimations hautes décrivent une France qui compterait 4 à 5 millions d'Algériens et descendants, autour de 3 millions de Marocains, 1 million de Tunisiens, 2 millions d'Africains du Sahel, 800 000 Turcs, etc.
^Anne Sila - The Voice 4, Gala, retrieved 19 December 2020, Originaire de la Drôme, Anne Sila voit le jour le 5 mars 1990. Fille d'un médecin d'origine turque, elle grandit avec son petit frère à Valence.
^ abYASMINE GHATA, Schaffner Press, Ms. Ghata is the daughter of the renowned Turkish-Lebanese poet, Vénus Khoury-Ghata.
^Esposito, Claudia (2013), "Of Chronological Others and Alternative Histories: Amin Maalouf and Fawzi Mellah", The Narrative Mediterranean: Beyond France and the Maghreb, Lexington Books, p. 36, ISBN978-0739168226, born into a culturally composite family - his mother was Egyptian of Turkish origin, his father a Greek Catholic in 1949 in Lebanon...
^ abGhata, Yasmine (2019), "For A Long Time, Afraid Of The Night: A Novel", Beshara Magazine, Schaffner Press, ISBN978-1943156764, Ms. Ghata is the daughter of the renowned Turkish-Lebanese poet, Vénus Khoury-Ghata.
^Julien, Par Bisson (2007), Yasmine Ghata: La romancière Yasmine Ghata tisse une belle histoire sur l'hérédité et ses conséquences, L'Express, retrieved 19 December 2020, C'est décidément une affaire de famille. Révélée en 2004 avec La nuit des calligraphes, un premier roman plein de délicatesse où elle évoquait le souvenir de sa grand-mère paternelle, artiste turque portée sur les arabesques, Yasmine Ghata, fille de la romancière et poète Vénus Khoury-Ghata, prouvait par là même que le talent pouvait être héréditaire.
^Moubayed, Sami M. (2000), Damascus between democracy and dictatorship, University Press of America, p. xxiv, ISBN0761817441, Madam Bey... one of the most prominent families of Turkish ancestry.
^ abDavid, Samantha (2017), Holidays used as excuse to dump pets, The Connexion, retrieved 23 December 2020, TBorn in the US, Ms Hutin spent much of her childhood travelling with her Turkish diplomat parents.
^Chellabi, Leïla (2008), Autoscan: Autobiographie d'une intériorité, LCD Médiation, p. 237, ISBN978-2909539751, Mon père, né Algérien d'origine turque, a quitté l'Algérie pour le Maroc où il a fait sa vie après être devenu, par choix, français. Mais à chaque démarche on le croit d'abord marocain puis on sait qu'il est d'origine algérienne et turque, cela se complique..
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Further reading
Böcker, A. (1996), “Refugee and Asylum-Seeking Migration from Turkey to Europe” Boðaziçi Journal Vol. 10, Nos. 1–2.
Cahiers d'Etudes sur la Mediterranée orientale et le Monde Turco-iranien (1992), special issue on Turkish immigration in Germany and France, Paris: Centre d'Etude des Relations internationales, n°13.
Cahiers d'Etudes sur la Mediterranée orientale et le Monde Turco-iranien (1996), special issue on Turkish migrant women in Europe, Paris: Centre d'Etude des Relations internationales, n°21.
Les Annales de l'Autre Islam (1995), special issue on Turkish diaspora in the World, Paris: Institut national des Langues et des Civilisations orientales, n°3.