Research project: The second generation Malayalees in Germany  

In the research project it will be analysed which impacts the origin and religion of their parents have on the processes of identity constructions among second generation Malayalees in Germany. In this ethnographic study the focus will be put on the way the members of the second generation relate to questions of ethnic and religious identities, what importance they give to the “traditions” pursued by their parents and the role these play in their lives. The Christian religion of their parents and the Christian infrastructure established in Germany will be investigated for their influence on the second generation without, however, going into the Christian practices and theological matters in any detail. The particular context in which second generation Malayalees have been brought up in Germany will also be compared with other Indians of the second generation who did not grow up in a similarly established religious and ethnic infrastructure.

The term Malayalees describes people from the South Indian state Kerala who speak Malayalam. A large proportion of the population in Kerala is Christian, tracing its roots back to Saint Thomas in the first centuries AD. There are several Christian churches in Kerala which are more or less linked to the Roman Catholic Church. When in the 1960s and 1970s there was a scarcity of health personnel in Germany, Catholic hospitals and homes for the elderly used their worldwide network to recruit nurses from the Philippines, Korea and also from Kerala. As the recruitment took place through the church and given a long history of nurse emigration from Kerala, families agreed to send their teenage daughters to Germany. Most travelled in small groups and were looked after in Germany by Catholic institutions. After they had worked several years in Germany and were well established there, many had an arranged marriage in India. Their husbands were mostly graduates and postgraduates. Those who followed their wives to Germany, however, faced a shift in gender roles. Their wives knew the country and language, had a valued occupation and status in Germany. The husbands for the first years were not eligible for a work permit and thus were restricted to the family and community sphere. They looked after the children, who were soon born, and established an ethnic infrastructure. They founded sports and theatre groups, societies and Malayalam schools, published magazines and organised seminars. Indian priests joined the community and offered Malayalam services. The children were thus brought up within a Malayalee community with exposure to Malayalee “traditions” and regular church services. This differentiates them especially from other Indians of the second generation. Besides annual Durga Puja celebrations few Hindu rituals are performed in Germany. Indian languages are hardly taught, few ethnic “traditions” pursued.

The starting point for this research project are some hypotheses about the particularities of the Malayalees in Germany. The first of these is that the Malayalees come closest of all Indian ethnic groups in Germany, only similar to the Sikhs, to forming an ethnic community, encouraging a regional ethnic identity and providing the infrastructure to live this. The Christianity brought along from Kerala plays a major part in this identity construction and differentiates them also from other Christians in Germany. The members of the second generation although living in a primarily “German” environment have accordingly been brought up within a Malayalee context, familiar with Malayalee ways of doing things. These have on the one hand formed their images of not only Kerala but also India (which for many of them is the same as Kerala). On the other hand the parents thus provided them an ethic codex within which to act or to which to react. They laid foundations for feelings of belonging and othering, both within the Malayalee context and in the host society. Issues which are of particular importance in this context are the fields of education, family and the choice of a partner. On the first glance the Malayalee parents’ wish for a good education of their children, preferably a degree in medicine, seems to be not particularly determined by their origin. It, however, gains an ethnic dimension in several ways. Firstly, almost all members of the second generation see it as the norm among Indians in Germany to study medicine. Asked about their field of study most will answer referring to this stereotype. Secondly, many parents argue for medicine highlighting the internationality of this profession and thus the possibility of pursuing it also in India as well as it being a safeguard in case one has to flee from racism in Germany. The fields of family and partnership are generally seen even stronger linked to the origin and religion of the parents. The first and second generation Malayalees claim to have a closer family sense than “Germans”, the second generation accept more interference from their parents than they consider “German” youths to do, more stay at home while studying. The question of partnership is a particularly critical one among Malayalees. Most presume that the parents want their children to marry a spouse from the same ethnic group and despise premarital sexual relations. In these fields the members of the second generation have a lot of expectations about what their parents expect, and react to these. The research project aims to analyse these processes.

Compare:

Siehe auch:

© Urmila Goel, urmila.de / english / Malayalees 2008