Language and Identity Problems
Language and Identity Problems

Author(s): Neriman Hocaoğlu Bahadır
Subject(s): Geography, Regional studies, Sociolinguistics, Migration Studies, Identity of Collectives, Turkic languages
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: acceptance; identity; language; migration;
Summary/Abstract: Migration, language and identity are three interrelated concepts. These concepts have important effects on the lives of moving families, as their lives are social realities. In this research, it is aimed to focus on the 1989 migration from Bulgaria to Turkey in order to determine the problems especially language related problems, which people who immigrated in 1989 and afterwards to Turkey came across and their effects on their identities. To be able to find proper results qualitative method was used in this study. In-depth interviews were conducted to understand the difficulties in relation to language inabilities, adaptation problems, perceptions, acceptance or exclusion. So the research questions are: What were the problems of immigrants who moved from Bulgaria to Turkey? and How did these problems affect their identities? The novelty of this research is that it is focused on not only to people who emigrated but also their children who were born either in Bulgaria or in Turkey. So, it is possible to make comparison among the people who lived the act of moving and their children whom may also have lived or just felt it in their lives. This also makes it possible to determine changes in time.

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