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Are you Yurdum, or what?


On arrival in Germany making contact and being a part of German society could prove difficult. Football offered many male migrants an initial opportunity to break down barriers by playing during breaks at work, for the factory team or in the park.

In the 1960s the first guest workers set up hobby teams and clubs. Largely Turkish clubs appeared in the major conurbations for the first time during the 1970s, including PSI Yurdumspor in Cologne, Türkspor in Berlin and Türk Gücü in Munich, who are now known as TSV 1975 Munich.

In its Declaration of basic principles on sport for foreign residents in 1981, the German Sport Federation approved the establishment of "ethnic-based clubs" where "a German club is swamped by a high percentage of foreigners".

Many 'native' voices saw them as a transitional solution along the path to assimilation in German society. But according to the information service Foreigners in Germany, as late as 1995 the response of Germans to the boom in the formation of ethnic clubs following German reunification was largely one of rejection, regret and resignation. Today the percentage of organised migrant footballers who have played for a 'German' club remains above 50%.

The majority continues to be organised in 'German', or perhaps more appropriately 'autochthonous' clubs, either out of a willingness to adapt, because of the prospect of success or for want of an alternative.

Yet clubs do not have an integrative effect per se simply because they accept a foreigner or a migrant. Those in and around the club must be receptive to change and consider it an enrichment. It is easier for players with good ability. Reciprocal negative experiences at these clubs, religious interests, disintegrative developments in wider society, a sense of not being accepted and rising xenophobic trends can be the main reasons why immigrants and their descendants organise their 'own' clubs. They hope to boost their own esteem. They attach importance to being hosts themselves for once, even though they say they are discriminated against in the allocation of sports grounds. At the heart of this is self-help and representation of interests, targeted social and youth work, representation, symbolic security and the promotion of self-awareness. The existence of ethnic-based clubs should be considered a sign of plurality and democracy, not as the consolidation of foreign identity. Such clubs and teams are mostly a response to the circumstances they are faced with.