22. REMITTANCES IN ENVIRONMENT OF HUMAN INSECURITY: THE KURDISH CASE
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a profession first and then you can come here.’ I am insisting that ‘If you don’t have a profession, there is no job for you here.’ ” These expectations could be the results of reciprocity between the migrant and those of his or her family left behind. According to the qualitative research, migrants pay a high (higher in the case of clandestine migration) cost for their migration adventure, and the families left behind have often paid this cost collectively. Thus, in return, the family left behind expects benefits from its investment. Migrants’ future plans are made in relation to their direct investment patterns as well. A very small portion of remittances goes toward investments in Turkey (table 22.4), but the qualitative interviews may shed further light on what immigrants do with their savings. Many of the immigrants interviewed in Cologne reported that they own some property or business interest in Turkey. Immigrants’ family members who lived in Turkey ran most of these businesses and properties. These investments can be perceived as an indication of an inclination to return, but again, the interviewees in Cologne did not seem too keen on returning but yet make investments, perhaps for the possibility of returning in the distant future. The transnational nature of migration and migrant communities enables those individuals and families to pursue lives in more than one country. Remittances invested in Turkey shall be considered as part of such transnational investment portfolios for some Kurdish immigrants in Germany rather than indicating an intention to return. This case study shows us that different ethnic groups from the same country of origin may present different remittance patterns, which are shaped by their cultural traditions, intensity of relations within households and communities, their time spent abroad, as well as the relative deprivation (or socioeconomic development) levels that those left behind have to face in the country of origin. In this case, the Kurds seems to be in need of more support, for which remittances provide.