 Turkish day inVienna, Austria (2009) | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Austrians of Turkish origin: 360,000[1] to over 500,000[2][3][4] (2010/11 estimates) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Languages | |
| Religion | |
| PredominantlySunni Islam MinorityAlevism,Christianity, other religions andIrreligion |
Turks in Austria, also referred to asTurkish Austrians andAustrian Turks, (German:Türken in Österreich;Turkish:Avusturya'daki Türkler) are people ofTurkish ethnicity living inAustria. They form the largest ethnic minority group in the country; thus, the Turks are the second largestethnic group in Austria after the ethnicAustrian people.[5] The majority of Austrian Turks descend from theRepublic of Turkey; however, there has also been significant Turkish migration from other post-Ottoman countries including ethnicTurkish communities which have come to Austria from theBalkans (especially fromBulgaria,Greece,Kosovo,North Macedonia andRomania), the island ofCyprus, and more recentlyIraq andSyria.
Turkish people were recruited to Austria asGastarbeiter (guest workers) for the construction and export industries following an agreement with the Turkish government in 1964. From 1973 the policy of encouraging guest workers ended and restrictive immigration laws were introduced, first with the 1975Aliens Employment Act, setting quotas on work permits, and then the 1992Residence Act, which set quotas for residency permits without the right to work. A more restrictive system was put in place in 1997 and further limits imposed in 2006.
Since the 1970s Turks living and working in Austria have focused on family reunification and on seeking Austrian citizenship, for which they need to have lived in Austria for 10 years.
Initially,Turkish Bulgarians came to Austria after fleeing the height of theBulgarisation policies in the late 1980s, known as the so-called "Revival Process", when the communist rulerTodor Zivkov introduced an assimilation campaign in which Turks were forced to change their Turkish names for Bulgarian names, followed by the banning of theTurkish language and ethnic cleansing. Approximately 1,000 Turkish Bulgarians took refuge in Austria where they have since stayed permanently.[6]
The social network of the first wave of political emigration of Turkish Bulgarians became the basis of labour migration to Western Europe after the collapse of the totalitarian regime in Bulgaria in late 1989. Thus, the preservation of kinship has opened an opportunity for many Turkish Bulgarian to continue to migrate to Western Europe, especially to Austria, Germany and Sweden.[7]
More recently, once Bulgaria became a member of theEuropean Union during the2007 enlargement, the number of Turkish Bulgarian migrants in Austria increased further due to theirfreedom of movement rights asEU citizens. Thus, Turkish Bulgarian emigration to Austria in the twenty-first century has been dictated by the economic situation and the stagnation of the labour market in Bulgaria.[7]
In the 2010s, the Turkish-dominatedMovement for Rights and Freedoms political party in Bulgaria has been mobalising hundreds of Turkish Bulgarians in Austria, Germany and Spain.[8]
The first mass migration of theTurkish minority of Western Thrace (located inGreece) to Austria began in the 1960s and intensified further between 1970-2010 due to political and economic reasons.[9][10] In general, these migrants intended to return to Greece after working for a number of years; however, the Greek government used Article 19 of the 1955Greek Constitution to strip members of the Turkish minority living abroad of theirGreek citizenship.[9][11] According to Article 19 of the Greek Constitution:
A person of non-Greek ethnic origin leaving Greece without the intention of returning may be declared as having lost Greek nationality.[11]
A report published by theHuman Rights Watch in 1990 confirmed that:
Under Article 19, ethnic Turks can be stripped of their citizenship by an administrative decree, without a hearing. According to the U.S. State Department's 1989 Country Report, under Greek law there can be no judicial review and there is no effective right of appeal.[11]
Consequently, many ethnic Turks were forced to remain in the Western European countries they had settled in, which, in turn, also established the permanent Turkish Western Thracian community in Austria.[9]
More recently, the second mass migration wave of ethnic Turks from Greece has been significantly larger in numbers, although it occurred only within eight years, between 2010-18, due to theGreek government-debt crisis.[10]
Initially,Turkish Kosovars came to Austria whenKosovo was still part ofYugoslavia. The ethnic Turkish minority joined other Yugoslav citizens (i.e. Albanians, Bosnians, Serbs etc.) in migrating as "guest workers" in the 1960s and 1970s and then later brought their family members to Austria too. More recently, Kosovo Turks have also arrived as refugees during theKosovo war (1998-99). The Turkish Kosovar community in Austria have been active in lobbying for the opening of more Turkish schools in theBalkans.[12]
TheTurkish Macedonians first began to arrive in Austria as "guest workers" in the 1960s and 1970s alongside other citizens fromYugoslavia. SinceNorth Macedonia gained independence in 1991, ethnic Turks have continued to migrate to Austria. In 2021, Furkan Çako, who is a former Macedonian minister and member of the Security Council, urged Turkish Macedonians living in Austria to participate in North Macedonia's 2021 census.[13]
Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, there has been a significant decrease in the population of theTurkish Romanian minority group due to the admission ofRomania into theEuropean Union and the subsequent relaxation of the travelling and migration regulations. Hence, Turkish Romanians, especially from theDobruja region, have joined other Romanian citizens (e.g. ethnicRomanians,Tatars, etc.) in migrating mostly to Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain and the UK.[14]
The majority of theTurkish Cypriots left the island ofCyprus due to economic and political reasons in the 20th century. Traditionally, most who migrated to Western Europe settled in theUnited Kingdom,Germany,France, theNetherlands, andAustria.[15] The majority of Turkish Cypriots in Austria arrived after 1974, following thecoup d'état by theGreek military junta and then the reactionaryTurkish invasion of the island.[15] More recently, with the2004 enlargement of the European Union, Turkish Cypriots have had thefreedom of movement rights to live and work across theEuropean Union, including in Austria, asEU citizens.
TheTRNC provides assistance to its Turkish Cypriots residents living in Austria via TRNC Representative Office located inGaming; in addition,the office promotes friendly relations between the TRNC and Austria, as well as economic and cultural relations.[16]
Thousands ofSyrian Turks, alongside ethnic Arabs,Syrian Kurds and other minority groups inSyria, fleeing theSyrian civil war, came to Austria during theEuropean migrant crisis of 2014–19 asSyrian refugees. This mass migration accelerated on 4 September 2015, when ChancellorWerner Faymann of Austria, in conjunction with ChancellorAngela Merkel of Germany, announced that migrants would be allowed to cross the border from Hungary into Austria and Germany.[17]
The Turkish Austrian community is made up of ethnic Turkish people who have migrated from Turkey and their Austrian-born descendants as well as ethnic Turkish communities which originate from theBalkans (especially fromBulgaria,Greece andRomania) and theLevant (mainly fromCyprus andSyria). Consequently, official statistics published by the Austrian state does not provide a true reflection of people who self-identify fully, or partially, as Turkish because citizens in Austria are not given the opportunity to declare their ethnicity in official censuses.
In 2010Ariel Muzicant said that the Turks in Austria already numbered 400,000.[1] A report by theInitiative Minderheiten suggested a lower figure of 360,000 people of Turkish origin in 2011,[1] which was also echoed by the formerAustrian Foreign Minister and currentChancellor of AustriaSebastian Kurz.[18] Another estimate by the former AustrianMEP,Andreas Mölzer, has claimed that there are 500,000 Turks in the country.[3] Similarly, a report byThe Guardian in 2011 said that the Turkish community in Austria outnumbers the 500,000British Turks.[4]
The Turkish Austrian community live throughout the big cities such asVienna andSalzburg. In addition, there are large communities in smaller towns; for example, in the market town ofTelfs the Turkish community form approximately 20% of the population.[19]
In the2020 Viennese state election, According to analysis published by the OGM Institute, 20% of voters of Turkish immigrant background voted forSocial Austria of the Future (SÖZ), making it the second-most popular party among this demographic. SÖZ, a minor party representing immigrant interests, won just 1.2% of the vote overall. TheSocial Democratic Party of Austria SPÖ also performed better among Turkish immigrants than the overall electorate, with all other parties performing worse, particularly the ÖVP (10%) and Greens (9%).[20]
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Was sind die Gründe für dieses massive Unbehagen angesichts von rund 360.000 Menschen türkischer Herkunft?
Muzicant wandte sich am Donnerstag in einem Brief an alle Gemeindemitglieder. Er sichert darin Hilfe der IKG zu und ruft alle, die Opfer solcher Übergriffe werden, auf, sich bei der Kultusgemeinde zu melden und Anzeige bei der Polizei zu erstatten. »Wir dürfen nicht zulassen, dass der Antisemitismus jetzt auf die 400.000 in Österreich lebenden Türken übergreift.«
The Home Office says that there are about 150,000 Turkish nationals living in Britain at present, with about 500,000 people of Turkish origin living in the country altogether. But Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and France all have larger Turkish communities which are more likely to attract a new wave of legal migration.
By far the largest ethnic group is Turkish, of which 123,000 have Turkish citizenship, Many more ethnic Turks are Austrian citizens.
Avustralya ve Amerika Birleşik Devletleri, Kanada gibi uzak ülkelerin dışında aralarında Hollanda, İngiltere, İsveç, Fransa, Belçika ve Avusturya gibi ülkelerde de sayısı yadsınamayacak bir Batı Trakyalı Türk kitlesi yaşamaktadır.
Furkan Çako, yurt dışında yaşayan Makedonya Türklerini, ülkedeki nüfus sayımına katılmaya ve kendilerini Türk olarak kaydettirmeye çağırdı. Diplomatımız, Twitter hesabından yaptığı çağrıda şu ifadeleri kullandı: Ülkemizde devam eden #NüfusSayımı2021 sürecine katılmak ve kaydınızı #Türk olarak gerçekleştirmek için yurtdışında yaşayan ve Türkiye, Slovakya, Çek Cumhuriyeti, Almanya, Avusturya, İsviçre, İtalya ve İsveç'te bulunan vatandaşlarımız aşağıdaki bilgilerden yararlanabilirler.
Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said Erdogan is "not welcome" to hold campaign events, adding that it would "increase friction" in Austria and prevent the integration of a 360,000-strong minority of Turkish origin.
