Turkish Associations in the United States: Towards Building a Transnational Identity

摘要

Migrant associations have always been an important feature of migrant communities, assuming a significant role towards identity formation and integration in the host society. Such organizations also create an important transnational link between countries of origin and settlement. Using the example of Turkish associations in the United States and their institutionalization process, this essay argues that organizational dynamics of immigrants are greatly affected by the general attitude towards immigrants in the host country and homeland policies regarding emigrants (macro level), their relations with other ethnic groups already resident in the host country (meso level), and the status of immigrants and some of their pre-migration characteristics (micro level).