DAUGHTERS AND SONS OF GASTARBEITERS

Within the series Hidden, Uprooted, Left Behind: Parental and Children’s Fates of Labor Migration, bi’baxchange #17 invites the authors of the collective Daughters & Sons of Gastarbeiters to read about their experiences and memories as "suitcase children" between Germany and Turkey.

Children, who were left behind in their home country or commuted between two countries, because their parents have to work abroad for economic reasons, are referred to as ‘suitcase children’ or ‘commuter children’. Almost 700,000 children of Turkish migrant workers have spent their childhood between the two countries, as well as numerous children from Greece, Italy or Yugoslavia from the period of recruitment agreements.

Daughters and Sons of Gastarbeiters is an open literary project by authors from Berlin, whose parents came to Germany from the villages of Anatolia, Southern Europe, South Korea and the Balkans. As “Gastarbeiter” (guest workers), their mothers and fathers were to support the economic miracle. The daughters and sons are now looking back: in performative readings, they tell their personal stories and revive them with pictures.

With readings by: Didem Yücel, Shlomit Tulgan, Semra Deniz, Ok-Hee Jeong and Çiçek Bacık.

With the support of Aktionsfonds des QM Soldiner Strasse in the frame of the programme Zukunftsinitiative Stadtteil, Soziale Stadt – Investition in die Zukunft.