Nature-based experiences of immigrants from Turkey in Gothenburg

ABSTRACT

The economic, ecological, and social lives of migrants are neither independent of places they emigrate nor their homeland. This dependency push immigrants to carry their historical and cultural conditions of homelands to host countries. The cultural networks between immigrants provide the reproduction of the culture in the migrated places. The social structures determined by the culture at the local scale are transferred to different places via the migration mechanism. The specific qualities of each host localities can define the boundaries of cultural ties. In other words, the economic, ecological, and social conditions of the host country determine the limits of this cultural interaction. Specific host country conditions can adjust the boundaries of culture more sensitive to local qualities. Thus, immigrants offer a unique opportunity to define how each locality understands and sets its specific and current conditions and how cultures are transferred from local to the host countries. Based on this perspective, I tried to examine how migrants from Turkey in Gothenburg convey their interactions with nature according to the specific sensitivity of the host localities.

KEYWORDS:

• Nature-based integration
• immigrants
• ecological literacy
• social integration
• Gothenburg

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Prof. Marie Stenseke from the Human Geography Unit, University of Gothenburg, for her invitation. This paper wouldn't be actualized without her mentorship and guidance. Also, I appreciate Dr. Mirek Dimitrov, Shelley Kotze, and Charlotta Dahl from Human Geography Unit for their constructive comments about the earlier draft. Besides, I am grateful to research participants for giving their time and interesting research feedbacks. Finally, I am thankful for Asst. Prof. Canan Emek İnan from İnönü University for constructively reviewing my final draft.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Koray Albulut

Specialist Koray Albulut holds a master's degree in Urbanization and Environmental Problems in Political Science and Public Administration Department from İnonu University. His research interests are rural development, environmental governance, sustainable livelihood, political ecology, green grabbing, and tourism development.