Failure of integration or symbol of racism: The case of soccer star Mesut Özil
| Published date | 01 February 2023 |
| Author | Sabine Waas |
| Date | 01 February 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12869 |
International Migration. 2023;61:141–153.
|
141
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imig
INTRODUCTION
London, UK , 13 May 2018: the Premier League soccer p layer Mesut Özil, who was born in G ermany, has Turkish
roots and is a Musl im, was photographed with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğa n. In and of itself, this
does no t seem like something worth repor ting on. However, considering the timing of the meeting, th e subse-
quent media coverage of the photo- op is understandable. The meeting with Özil, along with his German national
team soccer teamm ate İlkay Gündoğan and Turkish player Cenk Tosun, could n ot have come at a bet ter time
for Presi dent Erdoğan. Turkey's President was not allo wed to hold election c ampaign rallies on German soil for
Turkey's upcoming general elec tions due to a controversy with the German governm ent over the imprisonment of
recently released German–Turkish journalist Deniz Yücel (Oltermann, 2020). Out of the 1.2 million Turkish people
Received: 10 July 2 020
|
Revised: 9 April 2 021
|
Accepted: 26 April 2 021
DOI: 10.1111/imig.12869
SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE
Failure of integration or symbol of racism: The
case of soccer star Mesut Özil
Sabine Waas
© 2021 The Author s. Internationa l Migration © 2021 IOM
Universit y of Texas, Austin, TX , USA
Correspondence
Sabine Waas, Un iversity of Texas, 3607
Greystone D rive, #1813, Austin, T X 78731,
USA.
Email: sswaas@utexas.edu
Abstract
In May 2018, Mesut Özil, a third- generation Turkish im-
migrant, was photogr aphed with Turkey's President Recep
Tayyip Erdoğan. This incid ent was constru cted by the
media and politicians as an endorsement for Erdoğan in the
upcoming Turkish election and resulted in a public discus-
sion about Özil's loyalt y to German democratic values . The
debate inte nsified especially after the World Cup and led
to Özil's resignation from the national team via social media
on 22 July 2018, where he cite d racism against him as one
of his r easons. Newspapers, news magazines and tabloids
all over the world covered the s tory, discussing racism and
the failure of German integration po licies. Through a qual i-
tative media content analysis of Ger man national newspa-
pers and t abloid press articl es following the public ation of
the photograp h of Erdoğan and Ö zil on 14 May 2018, this
paper will analyse h ow Özil was portrayed in the media.
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