Being a Muslim in Germany: A Qualitative Study of Identity Formation in Turkish-German Youth

The current qualitative study aimed to explore the negotiation of identities, and in particular religious and national identities, in order to ascertain bicultural belonging among young Muslim adults residing in Germany. The research encompasses diverse individual, social, and cultural variables with a primary focus on reconciliation strategies of identities, participants' daily life experiences, the religiosity factor, and factors influencing identity formation, primarily derived from the social identity theory of Tajfel and Turner developed in the early 1970s. A sample of 30 Turkish-origin German Muslims aged between 18 to 26 years was chosen and interviewed online. Thematic analysis was used to pull out themes from participants' responses to open-ended questions to address our research questions.