Chapter 6: The Politics of Knowledge and Cultural Survival for Uyghur Immigrants in Türkiye¹

This chapter contributes to an understanding of the understudied link between language, identity, politics, and education by exploring the challenges of language and cultural maintenance through education among one immigrant ethnic group, the Uyghurs, who have migrated from China to Türkiye. The Uyghurs are a Turkic-speaking Muslim ethnic group of approximately 12 million people within China, originating from China’s northwest Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where repressive government policies are currently threatening Uyghur cultural maintenance and transmission. In Istanbul, they have used nonformal education to transmit their language and cultural traditions in their host environment. Through an exploration of two examples of nonformal education – one a religious school with Uyghur language instruction, and the other a weekend Uyghur language program without religious instruction – this chapter shows how community members mobilize education to promote cultural transmission and ideologies about Uyghur identity and the corresponding cultural, religious, and/or political ideologies that are being conveyed.