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ALPTEKİN M. Y.
Journal of Identity and Migration Studies, vol.8, no.8, pp.47-67, 2014 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
Abstract
This study examines the socio-cultural life in the new land and integration
processes into the host community of the 75 Meskhetian Turkish households resettled in
Denver, Colorado. The traditional homeland of the Meskhetian Turks, as one of the dozens,
if not hundreds, immigrant communities living the U.S.A., is Akhaltsikhe, a district in the
region Samtskhe-Javakheti within the borders of the modern-day Georgia. In 1944, the
Meskhetian Turks were forcibly removed from their homeland and exiled en masse to
various countries in Central Asia by the Soviet Union. A significant part of those resettled in
Uzbekistan were transferred to the city of Krasnodar in Russia, after the Ferghana Events of
1989. In 2004, due to the conditions of resettlement, 12,500 Meskhetian Turks immigrated
to the U.S, under a refugee program, and dispersed throughout 26 states. Using the
methods such as surveys, in-depth interviews and participant observation with an
integrated approach, this study examined the family and community social structure of the
Meskhetian Turks currently living intensively in Denver, Colorado. The study illustrated their
cultural aspects, and tried to identify the present day of the process of integration into the
U.S. society, as well as to envisage the probable future of this integration.