FROM VAGABOND TO TOURIST: Second-Generation Turkish-German Deportees’ Narratives of Self-Healing and Well-being

Abstract

The paper explores the social integration, well-being and self-healing strategies and outcomes of a sample of second-generation Turkish-Germans who were deported to Turkey due to conviction for youth crimes. Based on the life-story narratives of 14 male participants living and working in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya, I analysed the way in which this tourist city offers spaces for self-discovery and socioeconomic integration, based on profitable work in the tourist economy. Although deportation was a traumatic event, it facilitated possibilities for life transformation – from ‘vagabond’ to ‘tourist’.