128 Ahmet İçduygu
the widespread lack of mastery of the host-country’s language, and the
clustering in underprivileged neighbourhoods that are highly ethnically
structured (shops, cafés, associations, mosques, etc.).
It seems that the labour-market position of many Turkish immigrant
workers in Europe is extremely weak, mainly because of their low educa-
tional level and lack of language skills. For example, the unemployment rate
for Turkish-born people in the Netherlands is almost three times as high
as the Dutch average; at the same time, only 8 per cent of Dutch citizens
of Turkish origin are unemployed. In Germany, unemployment among the
Turkish-born is twice as high as among natives, but about 18 per cent of
German citizens of Turkish origin are unemployed (Avcı 2006: 74). As far as
the area of education is concerned, there are two notable problems affecting
the Turkish communities in Europe: a high rate of school drop-outs from
secondary-level schooling (together with a low level of participation in higher
education) and a lack of language prof iciency. Avcı (2006: 76) notes that
nearly a quarter of Turkish pupils go to the Hauptschule in Germany (the
lowest track of secondary education), compared to only 13 per cent of all Ger-
man pupils; the situation is the opposite with respect to the Gymnasium – a
quarter of the latter attend this most advanced school type, whereas only 6
per cent of Turkish students do so. Findings of a recent study on the children
of immigrants from Turkey in Sweden show that, as far as the educational and
occupational statuses are concerned, the descendants of immigrants seem
not to be in the process of downward assimilation – that is, social exclusion
and therefore the formation of a distinct ‘underclass’ in Sweden: it is argued
that the concept of ‘subordinate inclusion’ is a more appropriate description
of the experiences of these children in this context (Behtoui 2012).
A vast majority of the immigrants continue to speak Turkish at home.
They follow television broadcasts from Turkey. Immigrant offspring born in
the new country of residence generally do not speak Turkish as well as the
language of their country of birth, but they are in touch with the language
and use it actively. Manço (n.d.) reports that ‘Using a dish antenna, it is
possible to pick up 12 Turkish TV stations, 8 of them private, as well as FM
radio stations, and in addition to them, three major national dailies began
to be distributed in Europe in the early ‘70s and six national dailies are cur-
rently available in Europe’s major cities’. Thus Turkish immigrants keep their
attachment to many aspects of their culture in Turkey. Furthermore, one
can address the relevant signif icance of a ‘true web of immigrant associa-
tions’ created, ‘from local associations and local mosques to Europe-wide
federations’. Again Manço (n.d.) refers to the visibility of Islamist migrant
organisations in terms of organisation and size: