From Work to Welfare: Institutional Arrangements Shaping Turkish Marriage Migrants’ Gendered Trajectories into a New Society

Abstract

Using a mixed methods approach, this article examines gendered patterns of employment and of unemployment benefit uptake among Turkish marriage migrants in Denmark. The results show that men use co‐ethnic networks to access entry positions. Subsequent eligibility for unemployment benefits enable these men to search for better jobs. Women enter employment more slowly and tell of such entry being related to entering the unemployment insurance system, enabling them to periodically conform to gendered expectations as homemakers. Pakistani marriage migrants display similar patterns, indicating the centrality of this institutional arrangement in low‐skilled marriage migrants’ active adaptation to a new society.

Family Migration and Integration: <i>The Need for a New Research Agenda</i>

“…The main finding from Bratsberg, Raaum & Roed's (2017) study of labour market participation across admission categories is that migrants from low-income countries first experience increasing employment rates, but after 5-10 years in Norway face declining employment rates (Bratsberg, Raaum & Roed 2017: 31). This pattern of increasing and then decreasing labour market participation over time among some immigrant groups is also found in a Danish study of Turkish marriage migrants (Jakobsen & Liversage 2017). These Scandinavian studies seem to contradict findings elsewhere in the OECD countries, where immigrants' employment rate continues to increase over time.…”

“…There are two main streams of literature about the integration of family migrants: first, studies of labour market integration of family migrants (see, e.g. Bratsberg, Raaum & Roed 2017;Chiswick, Lee & Miller 2006;Elrick & Lightman 2014;Oliver 2013) and, second, research that focuses the integration effects of intra-ethnic marriages (Jakobsen & Liversage 2017;Mohn 2016). The first stream of literature focuses on the migrants' integration into the labour market, sometimes also including data on educational level, language acquisition and the use of social insurance.…”

“…These Scandinavian studies seem to contradict findings elsewhere in the OECD countries, where immigrants' employment rate continues to increase over time. This somewhat surprising finding seems to be a result of precarious, low-skilled work and insecure labour market status, on the one hand, combined with access to welfare benefits that reduce labour incentives on the other hand (Bratsberg, Raaum & Roed 2017;Jakobsen & Liversage 2017).…”

“…Gender and family norms are also prominent topics in studies of these marriages, where such marriages are often expected to be more traditional concerning gender norms than intermarriages and marriages between natives. Some studies confirm such assumptions (Brekke & Rogstad 2011;Jakobsen & Liversage 2017), while others show that there may be conflict and diverging opinions among different family members and that transnational marriages may not fully fit the assumptions of traditional gender norms (e.g. In Norway, as in other European countries, intra-ethnic marriages have received considerable attention among policy-makers and scholars (Myrdahl 2010).…”

“…Similarly to Mohn's study, she found that spouse import had a negative effect on labour market participation as compared with those who married someone already residing in Denmark (Çelikaksoy 2007). Another study of Turkish marriage migrants in Denmark (Jakobsen & Liversage 2017) revealed that female sponsors have higher employment rates than marriage migrant women but significantly lower than male migrant spouses. According to the authors, these gendered patterns are explained by cultural differences with regard to work-family reconciliation combined with barriers to accessing the labour market (Jakobsen & Liversage 2017: 26).…”