Tag Archives: Education

A story of 50000 Turks from 2000 families over three generations

New data can answer key migration questions

Questions about the real benefits of migrating from one country to another can now be answered with the help of the unprecedented 2000 Families data.

The research team led by Dr Ayse Guveli at the University of Essex spent 5 years collecting information about men who migrated from certain regions of Turkey to Europe in the 1960s and the impact this had on their lives, the lives of their children and their grandchildren no matter where they ended up in the world.

The study, 2000 Families: Migration Histories of Turks in Europe, has collected and now published information on nearly 50,000 individuals.

The data includes information about the complete genealogies of 2000 ancestors who were born in five high sending regions in Turkey between 1925 and 1945. Eighty per cent of these ancestors moved to Europe between 1960 and 1974 while 20% stayed put.

From basic information about where they are from, their age and sex to their education and jobs, their religion, family and friendship networks and their attitudes, beliefs and orientation about gender roles, politics and culture, the data is now available for researchers around the world to use in their efforts to better understand the real impacts of migration.

The researchers behind the project have already published a book which takes a first look at what the study can tell us about how migrants get on compared with those who stay behind.

From the sort of education and jobs they get to how many children they have, their attitudes towards gender equality and religion, the book provides fascinating insights into the effects of migration on families over three to four generations.

Ayse Guveli hopes other researchers will now delve into the freely-available data-set to look at a range of migration research questions.

Because we collected information from those who left, those who stayed and those who returned, this detailed and rich information can help us understand much better who benefits and who loses in the migration process. We also get a much better feel for the impact that moving has on people’s attitudes and beliefs around important issues such as gender equality and arranged marriage.

The data is available to download from the GESIS data service.

Listen to lead researcher Ayse Guveli talk about the 2000 Families project .

 

Photo credit: 4 en 5 mai Amsterdam

2000 Families: Podcast 06 – gender equality

In Episode 6 of our 2000 Families podcast, Dr Niels Spierings from the Radboud University in the Netherlands talks about what the study tell us about the participants’ attitudes towards gender equality.

The interview is based on his chapter Gender Attitudes in the book Intergenerational consequences of migration: Socio-economic, family and cultural patterns of stability and change in Turkey and Europe.

Photo credit: jurek D.

2000 Families: Podcast 03 – Education

In Episode 3 of our 2000 Families podcast, Dr Sait Bayraktar from the University of Essex talks about the educational achievements of the study’s participants.

The interview is based on his chapter Education in the book Intergenerational consequences of migration: Socio-economic, family and cultural patterns of stability and change in Turkey and Europe.

Photo credit: tayfun

2000 Families Podcast launches

The 2000 Families podcast series has launched this week with its first episode now available on our website and on iTunes, where you can subscribe to the series and future episodes.

Lead researcher Ayse Guveli kicks our podcast off with an interview about the background to the study, the data that has been collected from the study’s 50,000  participants and an overview of some of the study’s first findings.

Future episodes will include interviews with Ayse’s international team of academics about their research using the data. They will include findings about education and work, family and friends, marriage and fertility, religion, attitudes and beliefs.

The series is produced and edited by former BBC journalist, Christine Garrington of Research Podcasts.

Photo credit: Mardin by Evgeni Zotov

2000 Families: Podcast 01- The Study

The first research findings from our unprecedented and unique research study looking at the lives of 50,000 Turkish family members have been published in a fascinating new book.

The book examines how Turkish migrants, their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren have benefited from moving to Europe by looking at a whole range of things from their education and work to friends and family, religion and culture.

Its approach is unique in that it compares the lives of those who migrated to nine different European countries with those families who chose not to leave.

In the first episode of our 2000 Families Podcast, lead researcher on the study, Dr Ayse Guveli from the University of Essex explains the background to this Norface funded project.

Photo credit: Yavuz Selim Uylas

Ethnic capital and educational outcomes

Does Ethnic Capital Contribute to the Educational Outcomes of Individuals with Turkish Background in Europe? is a chapter in The Young and Elderly at Risk, a book of empirical studies reflecting on when and why the young and the elderly are at risk in European countries.

2000 Families co-researcher, Sait Bayrakdar investigates how ethnic capital, calculated here as the percentage of parent’s friends and colleagues who are from the same ethnic background and the language spoken between parents and children, shapes the educational outcomes of the study’s participants in Germany, the Netherlands and France.

The findings show that where parents have a high percentage of co-ethnic colleagues, this has no clear effect on educational outcomes of their children, while having a high number of co-ethnic friends and speaking the language of the sending country at home decrease the children’s chances of higher educational outcomes. The effect is most noticeable in Germany where late starting age of schooling and early age of tracking are two main features of the educational system.

Book showcases first findings

A book showcasing the first research findings from the 2000 Families project has now been published.

The book looks at how Turkish migrants, their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren have benefited from moving to Europe by comparing a range of outcomes to those of Turkish families who stayed behind.

From the jobs they got to how they got on at school and university, their relationships with friends and family to their attitudes towards religion, marriage, gender and Turkish culture, the book provides a fascinating insight into the lives of the Turkish diaspora.

Lead researcher on the project behind the book, Ayse Guveli, said:

‘Migration is a life-changing experience not only for migrants themselves but also for those left behind. Our unique approach and the unprecedented  data we have collected from 2000 Turkish families and their 50,000 family members reveals the true impact of migration across many aspects of their lives.’

Intergenerational consequences of migration: Socio-economic, family and cultural patterns of stability and change in Turkey and Europe is written by  Ayse Guveli, Harry B.G. Ganzeboom, Lucinda Platt, Bernhard Nauck, Helen Baykara-Krumme, Ṣebnem Eroḡlu, Sait Bayrakdar, Efe K. Sözeri, and Niels Spierings.

The book is published by Palgrave Macmillan.

Migration and education

Educational outcomes and mobility in Turkish migrants and non-migrant families is a doctoral thesis by 2000 Families team member, Sait Bayrakdar. It makes use of the project’s data to compare across three generations how well Turks in European countries do relative to their non-migrant counterparts in Turkey. Here he explains more about the research and how it brings a new perspective to studies focusing on the success of migrants.

My thesis takes a new perspective on the impacts of migration by attempting to determine whether migrants are doing better than they would have had they stayed in their country of origin, in this case Turkey.

Using three different measures of educational outcomes, the research shows that in terms of relative position, Turks are at the bottom of the societies they live in and, therefore, less successful than Turks in Turkey. However, in terms of skills and qualifications in formal education, they gain from migration and obtain better results.

A comparison of second and third generation families in the study showed that Turks in Europe obtained better results than Turks in Turkey in both generations, while in the third generation, the gap between migrant and non-migrant groups narrowed.

Educational expansion

I believe the closing of the gap between Turks in Europe and Turks in Turkey can be explained by the fact that although educational expansion was a feature of both sending and receiving countries, Turkey was in fact a relative latecomer to the process and has, therefore, been able to do more to help the more recent generation of the 2000 Families participants by narrowing, but still not fully closing, the gap.

Parents’ socio-economic characteristics were less important for the educational outcomes of migrants than non migrants, which would indicate that migration makes intergenerational transmission more difficult.

I also looked specifically at third generation participants to see what, if any, effect grandparent and parent characteristics had on their educational outcomes. Although there was some level of direct effect of grandparents, these were weaker for Turks in Europe, suggesting that migration acts as a sort of ‘breaking point’ in transmissions.

Comparing with destination country

To see if there were any differences in outcomes for Turks educated in Europe, I compared the qualifications, skills and relative position of those participants living in Germany, Netherlands, France, Belgium, Denmark and Sweden. I also compared their outcomes with those of the destination country’s natives.

Although, on the face of it, Turks living in Sweden and Denmark had the highest qualifications, their position within the educational composition of those countries wasn’t necessarily better than other countries. Conversely, while Turks living in Germany appear to be the most disadvantaged, the differences were smaller when we looked at their relative position.

As a result of my investigations, I go on to argue that when it comes to the question of adequately measuring educational outcomes, the composition of the individual countries should be taken into account.

Parents’ friends and colleagues

For ethnic capital, I find that the parents’ proportion of neither co-ethnic friends nor colleagues has any bearing on the educational outcomes of Turks in Europe.

Those who speak the host country language with their parents at home are likely to do better and obtain higher educational qualifications. Relying on the language of the ethnic community results in lower qualifications.

My thesis, I believe, brings a new perspective to bear on research focusing on the success of migrants. It seems that migrants do, on the whole, benefit from migration relative to their non-migrant counterparts, but it’s important to note that where educational attainment is concerned, there are, nevertheless, many of their native peers who do better and this provides food for thought.

It is also important to note how our Turkish migrants are at the bottom of the educational ladder in their receiving countries, even if their qualifications are better than those of those educated in Turkey.

Nevertheless, the wider educational opportunities that European countries offer do seem to lead to better outcomes. Whether Turks in Europe will continue to enjoy this advantage over Turks in Turkey for a long time is a question of the pace at which educational expansion in Turkey will take place in the following decades.

Further information

Educational outcomes and mobility in Turkish migrants and non-migrant families is a doctoral thesis by Dr Sait Bayrakdar. The research is also featured in a book produced by the 2000 Families project team.

If you would like to find out more you can contact him by email at bayrakdarsait@yahoo.com.

Photo credit: Sarah Barker