Family Influence on Partner Choice of Second Generation: What Are the Experiences of Turkish Origin Women in Switzerland?

Partner Choices of the Second Generation of Turkish and Former Yugoslav Origin in Switzerland: A Comparative Analysis

“…The probability of exogamy at the mean is 3.5 per cent for youth with compulsory education, but 23.2 per cent for those who have achieved a tertiary level. The difference according to city of residence, which is observed in the logistic regression results, can now be better understood with the help of predicted probabilities of the interaction term (origin*agglomeration): the probability of exogamy of the youth of Turkish origin is higher in Basel (17.2 per cent) compared to Zurich (8.8 per cent), which confirms our expectation based on the heterogeneity of the Turkish community in 10 Analysing the qualitative interviews that I carried out with young people of Turkish origin in Switzerland, I observed a variation in the types of unions and partner choices among siblings within a single family (Topgül 2015). This variation points out a transformation in young people's attitudes and behaviours -especially of those born in Switzerland.…”

“…unions are transnationally endogamous (Topgül 2013;Topgül 2015). Switzerland resembles France and Austria in terms of low exogamy (around 15 per cent), but is more similar to Belgium and the Netherlands in terms of the high proportion of first generation partners 4 (more than 60 per cent), signalling moderate incorporation conditions and a small marriage market for co-ethnics in the country (Hamel et al 2012).…”

Translocal Care Across Kosovo’s Borders

“…In the two latter cases, it is likely that spouses get to know each other in venues like school, clubs or bars, without the involvement of family members. Ceren Topgül (2015) shows that about four-fi ft hs of second-generation migrants from Turkey in Switzerland, men and women alike, meet their partner in 'individually framed encounters', and we can assume the same tendency among migrants from Kosovo in Western European countries. Still, the parents remain infl uential, as the family matters in marriage choices.…”

“…Others insisted their relationship started as a love connection, although the initial encounter was arranged by the family or occurred in a family setup. Instead of diff erentiating between 'love' and 'arranged' marriages, which happen to represent opposite poles in the Western imagination, it is more accurate to diff erentiate between a 'family framed encounter', deriving from meetings arranged by parental friends or family gatherings, and an 'individually framed encounter', where spouses meet without family assistance at diverse venues, like schools, clubs or bars (Topgül 2015). As far as family involvement is concerned, the question is not whether the family becomes involved but how or at what point in time.…”