Ethnicity and Belonging as Experienced Dimensions in Mixed Marriages

Abstract

The first part of this article offers a theoretical outline of the concepts of ethnicity and belonging. It also explains the history of ethnicity. The theory chapter deals with three fields of interest: gender and belinging, belonging as biographical positioning and the question of multiple belonging. The second part of the article includes different views expressed in the media and public debate on problems related to migration in European countries. It especially calls into question the debate in Germany given its reductionist perspective on the national, religious and cultural identity of its migrants. The authors highlight the inherent bucultural identity in the second generation of immigrant families. This is illustrated in the case of a young Kurdish Turk who not only grew up in Germany but is married to a woman with a German family background. This is therefore an example of a „mixed couple“. The authors conclude, however, that it is not possible to clearly identify a person by their ethnic correspondence. Consequently, the factor that unites the different affiliations of a person, a couple and their children is rather the amount of effort that they make and not their external ethnicity.

Key words: ethnic groups; cultural belonging; Germany; mixed couples.