As a graduate student in Cultural Studies at Sabancı University, Oytun conducted an oral history interview with Gizem about her migration to Germany.
Oytun:
“After transcribing the interview, I noticed that the material I collected was highly fragmented. This fragmentation had many reasons and revealed itself on many levels. First, the ‘actual’ answer to a question came up at very different moments during the interview. The fact that I came back around to the same themes from different vantage points while on the track of my questions added to this effect. Another point is that the story was never told as a chronological whole. Different aspects of Gizem’s life came together while others just remained as such without any connection. This made it impossible to present a portrait of the emigrant in a totality of past, present and future. On the other hand, I had to keep in mind the fact that the person I was questioning might be in a constant process of negotiation with the past, present and future while making sense of her story.”
From the interview:
“… for example, there is a grocer down the street who has been living in Berlin for 30 years and who says that he will be returning next year. He has been returning for four years (laughs). But he has stayed, right? Not according to him. For example, I said at one point [in the interview] that I would return. I left [Turkey] saying that I would not return, then for some time I said I would return. Then I said ‘I am staying’. Now, I do not know. In any case, your belonging and roots are in Turkey, so that you can never fully leave here nor fully belong there. There is a beginning and a development, but never an ending in the phenomenon of migration. There is no such thing as an ending. For even you do not know, you cannot know. Everything can change momentarily. I think this is also a problem of academic research that is short-term or generational. For he who says ‘I am leaving’ today may stay tomorrow (laughs).”