German genes and Turkish traits: Ethnicity, infertility, and reproductive politics in Germany

This ethnographic study uses the lens of ethnic difference to examine the experience of infertility and the cultural politics of belonging in modern Germany. The data are derived from participant observation and interviews conducted with forty-one ethnic Germans and thirty-three German Turks undergoing biomedical treatment for infertility at a fertility clinic in Berlin (1998-2000). Through their illness narratives, men and women symbolically link their loss of biological parenthood to losses in other life arenas, such as gender identity, social status and cultural acceptance. Results reveal that while both German Turks and ethnic Germans experience disruption and social suffering from their inability to conform to procreative norms, German Turkish sufferers exhibit higher levels of distress, which directly relates to their dual stigma as outsiders in both German Turkish culture and mainstream German culture. The findings suggest that the tensions surrounding individual reproductive practices are reflective of larger national tensions regarding the constitution of the body politic in an increasingly multicultural Germany.