Vol. 22 · No. 2 · Issue 70 · Summer 2004

John Brady, San Diego, California

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Abstract

Betigül Ercan Argun, Turkey in Germany: The Transnational Space of Deutschkei (New York: Routledge, 2003)

Eva Østergaard-Nielsen, Transnational Politics: Turks and Kurds in Germany (New York: Routledge, 2003)

Given the general reluctance of German political actors to embrace homeland political agendas, immigrant organizations who place homeland political issues in the foreground will find it difficult to move into the mainstream of politics in the Federal Republic. In other words, "including both the political system of the receiving country and the homeland complements the understanding of the extent to which immigrants and refugees cooperate with political institutions while residing in their receiving country." (84) Østergaard-Nielsen adopts this multivariable approach in her study's two other case studies- one that examines how German political actors, such as the unions and political parties, have confronted immigrant transnationalism, and another that details the attempts of the Turkish government to influence the Turkish diaspora in the Federal Republic. Both of these case studies are, like her study of the strategic repertoire of immigrant activists, descriptively rich and analytically insightful. These are both excellent studies, and each should be one of the first stops for any scholar interested in the contemporary politics of transnationalism in the Federal Republic.