Disadvantaged, but morally superior: ethnic boundary making strategies of second-generation male Turkish immigrant youth in Germany

Abstract

In this study of minority groups, destigmatization strategies are revealed when it comes to ethnic stratification, socio-economic segregation and the possible courses of second-generation immigrants' adaptation. Although Germany - with its restrictive citizenship policies, exclusionary public discourses and socio-economic segregation - is characterized by robust ethnic boundaries, the destigmatization strategies of its minorities have been ignored so far. Using a case study of Turkish second-generation immigrant youth in Germany, this article aims to fill this gap in the literature. My findings illustrate that this group of youth mainly assert the moral inferiority of the dominant group through normative inversion, while a few of them appropriate equalizing strategies such as universalizing and contingent detachment. I argue that the reason for different destigmatization strategies can be explained by different degrees of exposure to ethnic boundaries, due to biographical scripts and individual resources. My findings empirically substantiate Lamont's and Wimmer's theoretical arguments within the understudied German context.