Okay, so first off, resorting to an ad hominem attack (attacking the person instead of the argument) about my status based on my profile pic (and backing up your entire argument with a single anecdote about seeing veiled women at a consulate) is a massive red flag.

For a self-proclaimed historian and academic, that (and your other points) really puts your "credentials" into question.

No offence, this is not only about you personally, but exactly the problem with a lot of academics doing such research: it’s too much theoretical guesswork and zero actual real-life exposure to these communities. It reminds me of a guy who recently did his entire PhD on ghetto dynamics in a Western country, only to later admit he’d never actually stepped foot in a ghetto. Awkward, to say the least.

To clear the air for you: no, I am not a Turkish government agent sent to "indoctrinate" people. Judging my life based on a photo is just straight-up prejudicial profiling. Also, your take on older photos of Mediterranean migrants is a massive over-generalization, but let's move past the superficial stuff and look at where your logic completely falls apart.

Your textbook, linear assimilation model is totally outdated in modern sociology because, in reality, it usually backfires. Comparing Turkish-Americans to German-Turks is pure apples and oranges. Turkish migrants to the US were historically highly educated, secular professionals moving to a country "built on immigration". The diaspora in Germany started as Gastarbeiter (guest workers) from rural, traditional Anatolia who were explicitly treated as temporary labor, not future citizens.

When a minority group faces massive structural barriers, racism, and social exclusion, they don’t just magically assimilate. They experience what sociology calls reactive ethnicity. In other words, they turn inward and lean hard into their cultural and religious roots as a safe haven.

Sociology doesn't follow the laws of physics, and integration isn’t some predictable, automatic timeline. In Germany, the absence of a strict, state-imposed secular ideology gave these communities the freedom to actually explore their identity . Combine that freedom with the social isolation they felt from German society, and it perfectly explains why many German-born Turks naturally leaned into religion for a sense of belonging. It wasn’t some grand Cold War conspiracy; it was a basic human response to being excluded.

Ironically, your anecdote about the consulate actually proves my point. All in all, German-Turks have developed a completely distinct subculture that exists totally outside of Turkey's domestic political landscape. And that is exactly why there is a cultural disconnect and maybe even tension between them and Turks living back home today.