Turkish immigrants
Turkish immigrants are individuals who have migrated from Turkey to various countries, notably the United States, in search of better economic opportunities and living conditions. The history of Turkish immigration to the U.S. can be traced back to the time of the Ottoman Empire, with significant waves occurring from the 1860s to the early twenty-first century. The early immigrants, primarily males, often intended to return to Turkey after working abroad, with a sizable portion doing so. Immigration patterns changed with the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923, which fostered a sense of national identity among later immigrants.
Throughout the 1950s and 1970s, Turkish immigrants increasingly included professionals, reflecting a shift in socio-economic dynamics and national policies that encouraged educated Turks to return home. After the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the number of Turkish immigrants to the U.S. rose significantly. By the early twenty-first century, approximately 350,000 Americans of Turkish descent were estimated to reside in the U.S., with notable populations in cities like New York and Detroit. While Turkish immigration to the U.S. remains relatively small compared to other countries, such as Germany, the community has established itself and continues to contribute to the cultural fabric of American society.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Turkish immigrants
SIGNIFICANCE: Although Turkey has a moderately large population, the numbers of Turks who immigrated to the United States have never been great, and by the early twenty-first century, the Turkish American population remained small. The community is made of immigrants and their descendants who came during the time of the former Ottoman Empire as well as people who came after the Turkish Republic was founded in 1923. Most of the immigrants settled in large cities, seeking better economic opportunities.
The first wave of Turkish immigration to the United States occurred between 1860 and 1920. During that period, four hundred thousand people from the Ottoman Empire were recorded as entering the country. However, only ten to fifteen percent of them identified as ethnic Turksmost were Greeks, Armenians, Christian Arabs, Jews, and Slavs from Macedonia and other parts of the Balkan Peninsula. The total number of Muslims among these first newcomers was estimated at between fifteen and twenty thousandapproximately 85 to 90 percent of whom were men. Most Turkish immigrants from the Ottoman Empire came to the United States intending eventually to return to their homelandit has been estimated that about 84 percent of them did go back to Turkey.
Turkish immigration slowed considerably during World War Ithe Ottoman Empire fought on the side of the Central Powers. During the 1920sas Turkey was undergoing a political revolution under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürkrestrictive quotas added to US immigration law continued to keep Turkish immigration figures down.
Turkish immigration resumed during the 1950she immigrants who came during this period were different from their predecessors in having a sense of national belonging. Unlike subjects of the old Ottoman Empire, they consciously identified themselves as Turks because of Atatürk’s nationalist movement to promote Turkish ethnicity in the new republic. Again, most of the Turkish immigrants were male, but unlike the early immigrants, these newcomers included professionalsparticularly engineers and physicians. The Turkish Republic offered attractive employment incentives to Turks educated overseas to return to their homelandsome of the immigrants did return.
The next wave of Turkish immigrants began during the 1970s. During the 1960s and early 1970s, most Turks who immigrated to the United States had come for educational and economic opportunities. During the late 1970s and 1980s, a set of political conflicts evolving in Cyprus, eastern Turkey, and Bulgaria motivated more Turks to leave their homeland.
The Turkish Republic’s policy was to build a secular state and a society with a new identity for its citizens that merged modernity with Turkish ethnicity, while rejecting the religious culture and Ottoman past. Consequently, Turks who immigrated to America during the late twentieth century arrived with a new attitude, fostered by a mixture of national solidarity and openness to modern life. Unlike their predecessors, they managed to establish Turkish American communities by adapting their values and sense of Turkishness to the society and economy of the United States.
One of the most notable of Turkish American was Ahmet Ertegun (1923-2006). Born in Istanbul, Ertegun first moved to the United States in 1935at the age of 12when his father was appointed Turkey’s ambassador to the US. Ertegun’s family were gifted musiciansparticularly his mother. While living in Washington D.C., Ertegun developed an affinity for American jazz. He was able to see live performances of historical performers such as Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, and Louis Armstrong. In the years following World War II, Ertegun founded a small record label he hoped would help fund his college education. The label focused on jazz, Rhythm and Blues (R&B), and gospel. In later decades this small company would become Atlantic Recordsa global corporation. Atlantic Records would set it stamp on American music culture with legendary acts such as Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Otis Redding, and Led Zeppelin.
Passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 abolished the national quotas of the 1920sopening the way for increased numbers of Turks to come to the United States. During the 1970s, about 1,300 Turks immigrated each year. By the 1990s, that figure had risen to 3,800 immigrants a year. During the early years of the twenty-first centurywhen the annual average leveled off to about 3,000 immigrants per yearthe largest concentrations of ethnic Turks were in New York City; Rochester, New York; Washington, DC; and Detroit, Michigan. The Turkish Coalition of America's most current population estimate as of March 2023 was 350,000 Americans of Turkish descent living in America and the 2019 Census Bureau's American Community Survey reported 212,489 Turkish immigrants.
Turkish immigrants immigrated to other countries in much greater numbers that to the United States. A prime example is Germany. In 2024, over four million Turkish nationals and Germans of Turkish descent resided in the country, whose overall 2024 population was almost 90 million people. The 2020s marked the sixtieth year of Turkish immigration to Germanywhose history bears many similarities to that of immigrant communities in the United States. The first wave of Turks arrived for economic reasons, overcame language barriers and nativist hostilities, until they became integral segments of German society.
Bibliography
Ahmed, Frank. Turks in America: The Ottoman Turk’s Immigrant Experience. Columbia International, 1993.
Balgamis, A. Deniz, and Kemal H. Karpat, eds. Turkish Migration to the United States: From Ottoman Times to the Present. University of Wisconsin Press, 2008.
"Changing Face of Islam in Germany: Turkish Groups No Longer A Majority." Turk
DiCarlo, Lisa. Migrating to America: Transnational Social Networks and Regional Identity among Turkish Migrants. Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.
Kirshbaum. "No Longer ‘Guests’: Germans of Turkish Descent are Finding Greater Acceptance At Last." LA Times, 28 Dec. 2021, www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-12-28/germany-residents-turkish-descent-gain-greater-acceptance. Accessed 20 Sept. 2024.
Lewis, Bernard. The Emergence of Modern Turkey. 3rd ed., Oxford University Press, 2002.
Weiner, Tim. "Ahmet Ertgun, Music Executive, Dies at 83." New York Times, 15 Dec. 2006, www.nytimes.com/2006/12/15/arts/music/15ertegun.html. Accessed 20 Sept. 2024.