2,000 Families: identifying the research potential of an origins-of-migration study

Abstract

Despite recent advances, critical areas in the analysis of European migration remain underdeveloped. We have only a limited understanding of the consequences of migration for migrants and their descendants, relative to staying behind; and our insights of intergenerational transmission is limited to two generations of those living in the destination countries. These limitations stem from a paucity of studies that incorporate comparison with nonmigrants -and return migrants -in countries of origin and which trace processes of intergenerational transmission over multiple generations. This paper outlines the theoretical and methodological discussions in the field, design and data of the 2,000 Families study. The study comprises almost 50,000 members of migrant and non-migrant Turkish families across three family generations, living in Turkey and eight European countries. We provide indicative findings from the study, framed within a theoretical perspective of "dissimilation" from origins, and reflect on its potential for future migration research.

Acculturation, decoupling, or both? Migration’s impact on the linkage between religiosity and gender equality attitudes

“…We moreover refined the existing reasoning by integrating insights on how different dimensions of religiosity have different and gendered impacts (see Glas, Spierings, and Scheepers 2018) and by theorising the decoupling process more clearly within the existing frame of social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner 1979;Taylor and Moghaddam 1987). Empirically, these theories make implicit assumptions about stability in the country of origin, which we could explicitly test by taking an origin perspective (see Guveli et al 2017).…”

“…Recent studies have stressed that such processes should be understood in light of how the society of origin develops, since the origin context is also not static and many cross-border ties to the origin society remain (Guveli et al 2017;Röder and Mühlau 2014). Considering Turkey as the context of origin, it needs to be noted that it is more Western oriented than many other Muslim-majority countries.…”

“…Empirically, our study is based on the 2000Families data (Ganzeboom et al 2015;Guveli et al 2017) on Turkish Muslim migrants and non-migrants. These data are collected starting from five high-sending regions in Turkey, and finally interviewing 5980 respondents that migrated across Europe, particularly to Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Austria.…”

Impacts of Migration on Marriage Arrangement: A Comparison of Turkish Families in Turkey and Western Europe

“…The latter approach advises that behavioral and attitudinal changes of migrants remain poorly understood without considerations of the migrants' origins (Guveli et al, 2014). Family behavioral patterns in sending countries are continually changing.…”

Observing the Unobservable: Migrant Selectivity and Agentic Individuality Among Higher Education Students in China and Europe

“…Research designs in tune with this line of research are complex and require comparing migrants and non-migrants in countries of origin in addition to using native-born citizens in destination as a second reference group. Research into international migration seems to be slowly moving toward this approach, from a destination perspective (based on comparisons between migrants and native-born citizens in destination) to an origin-destination approach that includes comparisons with native-borns in origin and destination (Massey and Zenteno, 2000;Garip, 2016;Guveli et al, 2016;Mussino et al, 2018). Such move helps to control for the inevitable selection bias whereby emigrants are not a representative sample of the population who decided not to migrate.…”