8.3.1 Contribution to theory The findings of this research have implications for the study of German-Turkish professional
elites. The theoretical contribution of this study is the development of new knowledge on the phenomenon of German-Turkish professional elite members in the fields of business,
medicine and law that furthers our understanding. There is clearly a shortage of data and information about German-Turks’ ability to penetrate the upper levels of the German
professional elite. My research adds awareness to national and international literature on the subject of upward social mobility, stratification and immigration, a particularly relevant topic in the current climate, particularly in relation to the identity of the largest immigrant group in Germany, the German-Turks, and their progress towards social recognition and social upward mobility within the professional elite.
Firstly, the study makes a contribution to the literature on professional elites, more
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2007). First, it highlights and analyses how German-Turkish elite members have tapped into extra resources in their journey to get ahead and which institutional and social factors have aided their elite ascension, to show how descendants of Turkish immigrants create new cultural capital and validation mechanisms. Further, it evaluates and probes the pathways of German-Turks from different backgrounds (law, medicine and business) in order to capture insights into their individual experiences of social mobility, exploring the difficulties and barriers they may have had to overcome on their way up to top positions in Germany’s business environment (Maclean et al., 2012). Second, the study moves beyond existing upward social mobility discourse of immigrants and explores the experiences of professional elites who have achieved leading positions in the corporate, medical and legal sectors in Germany. It identifies the importance of how they situate themselves within German society and use their social capital to enter a moderately protected market, which gives them a degree of monopolistic power in a German-Turkish community which in its self is becoming
stratified.
Third, the thesis contributes to our understanding of how German-Turkish professional elites view and situate their identities and make use of networks, both within the German-Turkish community and with their elite ethnic German counterparts. Furthermore, I promote the idea of converting a disadvantage into a dual advantage, the key to which is reflexivity and understanding the social situation. Additionally, this research added to the existing literature that lacks focus on an emerging group of German-Turkish professionals who manage considerable occupational achievements, regardless of their potentially disadvantageous position. Another important theoretical contribution of this study is the extension of Bourdieu’s capital theory (1986b), illustrating how upwardly mobile German-Turkish
professional elites use strategies to minimise the differences between their cultural and social capital and those of people with higher socio-economic status. Existing research on social mobility is expanded further and applied to professional pathways and strategies that help professional individuals reach further levels of social status. It does this by focusing on the role of influential actors, strategies and networks in the pathways of German-Turks in leading positions in business, medical and legal fields.
8.3.2 Contribution to practice In addition to making a contribution to the academic literature, this research is also of
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especially as Germany struggles to accommodate a new wave of migrants at the time of writing, despite opposition from some parties, highlighting lessons which may be learned from the German-Turkish experience. As Schluchter (1963) underlined five decades ago, ‘in essence, the nature of the elites reflects on the nature of society’. He concludes that only an analysis of the elites can show ‘whether industrial society can justifiably be considered a meritocracy in the real sense of the world at all’ (p. 249, translation by Hartmann, 2000). The German government arguably needs such research in order to recognise weak regulation concerning the protection of social equality, despite the existence of the General Equal
Treatment Act (ACC), commonly known as the antidiscrimination law, which aims to prevent discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity, race, religion and beliefs (Wetherell et al., 2007). Furthermore, it may enable the government to extract from the research those analyses, results, conclusions and recommendations that might be adopted in order to prevent unequal education opportunities and other social inequalities. In a society such as Germany, endowed with a stratified education system, key aspects of future labour market achievements are determined early in life. As formal educational diplomas are entry requirements to vocational and higher academic university institutions, it is reasonable to assume that the educational system should provide equal opportunities from the very beginning for everyone, including immigrant children (Riphahn, 2002). At a time when the immigrant topic issue has become particularly widely discussed in Europe, especially in Germany, an investigation into the mobility prospects and experiences of a migrant community who have lived and worked in Germany for more than 50 years is especially valuable. This may in turn provoke further reflection not just on the issue of elitism itself, but also on the behaviour of elites towards outsiders. By offering new and valuable knowledge with a conceptual contribution in this research, I aim not only to contribute to the literature but also to influence, if possible, the design of improved policies vis-à-vis immigration, immigrants and the offspring of
immigrants. Explicitly these concern policy implications regarding the integration of German- Turks, but the implications also apply to immigrants and their families more generally, since I found helpful lesson that people might take on board for making progress, particularly
regarding social mobility into the largest professional and corporate fields.
Additionally, the practical outcomes of my work informs how individuals conduct themselves and how community groups organise. Considering the overall situation of the Turkish
minority, which is still characterised as a difficult and unwilling community to integrate, with the prevalent social inequalities, the role of the successful upwardly mobile German-Turkish
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individuals is of great importance. The German-Turkish economic elite members I
interviewed clearly have certain affinities and are a sub community with a community, but they are a fluent group, a group that appreciates and values Germanness and the differences in others and how to relate to others. This is improving their interactions, the way they relate to others and not just to themselves. Although they still represent minorities in their
communities, the experiences of German-Turkish economic elites not only serve as a spearhead for mobility processes and successful strategies of immigrant descendants in general and set an example for both the Turkish minority and the German majority, they are also in a much more influential position than other minority members to forcefully pursue German-Turkish and immigrant minority interests in Germany.
8.4 Limitations and further research