Civic Engagement of Turkish Youth in Germany

Abstract

The recent growth of interest in children’s participation in civic life, partly reflected in and stimulated by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), has led to concerns about how to facilitate the involvement and participation of young people in public life and in the public policy process. Young people are fully capable of involvement in community assessment, planning and decision making. Research around the world shows that they gravitate naturally to a purposeful engagement with their surroundings and have strong feelings about the local environments they use everyday. Particularly, living in a foreign cultural context requires more involvement in order to accommodate to the culture. Turkish children and young people living in Germany are dealing with many problems, including their civic engagements. In this research, 40 pre-adolescents were interviewed in order to investigate their cultural participation in Germany. In-depth-interviews are done and analysed. Results show that the young people have a strong wish to be listened, particularly on issues directly affecting their daily lives and activities, their education, school and the environment they live. In this article the results will be discussed and examples will be given.