GENDERED MOBILITIES OF TURKISH RESIDENTS IN BERLIN
Cornelia RAHN
German Aerospace Center, Germany, cornelia.rahn@dlr.de
Up to today, only a little research has been done on the mobility behaviour of
migrants in Germany. This is surprising because this “minority” accounts for 20% of
the population in Germany and as much as almost 27% of that in Berlin. Even less
have the gender aspects of migrants’ mobility been taken into account.
Therefore, this research examines the question of whether the biggest minority in
Berlin, the Turkish migrants, shows gender-specific mobility behaviour. For that
reason, different study areas in Berlin has been chosen, where the Turkish ethnicity
accounts for the largest proportion of the “non-German” minorities. Analysis is based
on a quantitative household survey (n = 262) that was carried out in 2013. The
survey was complemented by a sample of qualitative interviews (n = 15).
The empirical analysis proves that there are differences in the daily mobility
behaviour of Turkish men and women, e.g. in the use of means of transport (bicycle,
public transport, car), size of action space, and perception of the neighbourhood. In
addition, results show that generation/age and length of occupancy influence the
daily mobility of the Turkish residents, especially women, to a large extent. Thus,
unlimited spatial mobility is not open to all. It will become obvious that neither the
gender aspect nor ethnicity or age alone can be held responsible for the different
daily mobility of Turkish men and women, but rather the intersection of all three.