Meta-Narrative of Immigration: A Study on Migration and the Presentation of Immigration in Fatih Akin's Films

Introduction

The phenomenon of immigration which is almost parallel with the beginning of humanity has a feature that has survived to the present day with its content changing over time. Migration is generally in a close relationship with situations that can be associated with increasing the standard of living such as living in better conditions, earning more financially, maintaining a life in a safer environment if compulsory situations are excluded. Despite all these positive demands, it is not an easy situation for the immigrants to adapt to their place of immigration. These people who are described as “immigrants” experience a rupture from their own culture and values as a result of this great change in their lives and they cannot be included in a new culture. The phenomenon of immigration which has such a great impact on the private and social lives of individuals is one of the issues addressed by the art of cinema which is an intertwined field with society. Many directors whether they are immigrants themselves or not have conveyed the lives, troubles, experiences and thoughts of immigrants to the audience through the silver screen with an internal or external perspective.

One of the periods in which migration movements have been seen recently coincides with the post-World War II period. With the end of the war, European states fell into a obscurity and decided that they had to quickly restart mass production in order to strengthen their shaken economies. However the loss of life caused by the war caused a great decrease in the male population, especially in European countries and this situation created the need for external demand, especially the physical labor force. Germany which is one of the countries that suffered the most from the war has been one of the countries that used this method in order to improve its weak economic structure. Turkey is one of the most important countries that meet the need of the labor. Workers living in small settlements of Anatolia, especially in villages and towns have constituted a significant part of those who migrated as they were more prone to physical works and they were presented with an important exit ticket like life in Europe. These people were surprised and did not know what to do because of the great cultural change they experienced. The necessity to adapt to a new culture, a new language, and a new way of life forced them a lot but they realized that there was no return from this path they once entered. The second generation which came after these people and their children was born directly into the German culture, took part in their education system and grew up by learning their language. This second generation adapted to this new culture much more easily compared to their parents. However despite all these advantages, there have been some problems they have experienced and encountered in their lives. Some of those who want to tell these experiences from their own perspective wanted to do this through cinema. Fatih Akin is one of these people. Akin reconstructed the phenomenon of immigration through his own films and formed his filmic narratives by adding his own perspectives to concepts such as “nostalgia” and “expatriate”. In this study, the phenomenon of immigration in Fatih Akin's cinema was discussed. In the study, concepts such as migration, immigration, immigrant cinema were discussed firstly, then the findings were interpreted and finally discussed in the conclusion section.