Tag Archives: Gender

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.

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.

Gender equality attitudes

Gender Equality Attitudes among Turks in Western Europe and Turkey: The Interrelated Impact of Migration and Parents’ Attitudes is research using the 2000 Families data to examine changes across generations and over time of the study’s participants’ attitudes toward gender equality.

Project co-researcher Niels Spierings compares the attitudes of Turks who migrated with those who did not and finds that more traditional Turks who migrated and then returned have children with more traditional attitudes than their counterparts who did not.

The research shows that among families who settle in Europe, migration seems to speed up the assimilation process of becoming more supportive of gender equality. Young people who grew up in Europe are hardly influenced by the attitudes of their parents, whereas the ones growing up in Turkey are.

By focussing on the origin country and return-migrants, the study also novelly showed that the children (who have always lived in Turkey) of return-migrants from Europe hold considerably more traditional gender attitudes than the children whose (grand)parents did not migrate or stayed in Europe.