Migrant Lives

The ?Alawi community constitutes one of the oldest secret communities originatingin what is known today as the Middle East. Today, the community members arescattered over many different countries around the world. The first ?Alawis came toGermany as Gastarbeiter (guest workers) in the 1960s following bilateral labouragreements between Turkey and Germany. The present book explores themultifaceted experiences of ?Alawiness during the post-migration period in Germany.The book demonstrates the pervasiveness of the practice of secrecy in the variousspheres of ?Alawi migrant life in Germany. Throughout this book, it becomes evidentthat living at the nexus of being an ?Alawi and a migrant generates a set ofexperiences that are shaped by the accelerated sociocultural, political, economicand technological developments in Germany, but also in the countries of origin. Thefocus of this book is on identification practices, the practices of secrecy, thedynamics of interethnic social relations, and the religious practices of Turkish ?Alawimen and women in present-day Germany. The book traces in particular the storiesof the new generations of ?Alawis whose experiences have largely remained ignored.