The quest for a ‘better life’: Second-generation Turkish-Germans ‘return’ to ‘paradise’

Abstract

BACKGROUNDThis paper uses a lifestyle-migration lens to analyse the 'return' of the Turkish-German second generation to their parents' homeland, Turkey. It focuses on a scenically attractive touristic region, Antalya on the south coast, where second-generation 'returnees' find a highly congenial environment to pursue their project of living a 'better life' in the ancestral homeland. METHODThirty in-depth interviews with second-generation Turkish-Germans, mostly in their 30s and 40s, were carried out in and around Antalya in 2014. Narratives were coded and prepared for thematic analysis using NVivo. RESULTSAccording to thematic analysis of interview narratives, many respondents were seeking to 'escape' from difficult personal, family, and economic situations. They mobilised their human capital of educational qualifications, language skills, and life experience to set up or get jobs in hotels, restaurants, and other tourist services, combining work with a relaxed attitude to life in what they saw as a 'paradise' of natural beauty and social open-mindedness. Alongside these practical considerations of seeking a better worklife balance were more existential themes of rediscovering their 'true selves' and reinventing the meaning of 'home' in this cosmopolitan niche.

From Vagabond to Tourist: <i>Second-Generation Turkish-German Deportees’ Narratives of Self-Healing and Well-being</i>

“…Key to this youth-adult transformation was the 'place' of Antalya, which offered not only abundant opportunities for material success in the tourist economy but also the culturally open and cosmopolitan spaces of a more liberal and alternative lifestyle in an attractive environmental and scenic setting, very different from the German industrial towns where they grew up. In this way, living and working in Antalya, which many participants likened to a kind of 'paradise' (Kılınç & King 2017), enabled them to achieve a self-healing process leading to heightened psychosocial well-being, based on quality of life, work/life balance, friendship, freedom and agency. This supports other aspects of analysis of well-being by Wright (2012) in the context of return migration, namely, the characteristics and structures within a 'place' of migration, such as climate, scenery, leisure facilities and community atmosphere, and the possibility to feel 'at home' in this tourist space.…”

“…As the various studies in the edited collection of Vathi & King (2017) have shown, recent research on return migration has used the well-being lens to shed light on post-return experiences. Following Wright (2012), I adopt a holistic approach whereby human wellbeing is understood beyond an economic framework, to include 'quality of life', social networks and the emotional aspects of return migrants' readjustment processes in the country of origin.…”

Youth Mobility and Well-Being: <i>Transitions and Intersections</i>

“…The key to this encouragingly positive instance of restorative youth transition is the work and business environment of Antalya's tourist economy, which offers good employment opportunities to incomers with language skills (Turkish, German and English, the key tourist languages) and a willingness to 're-make themselves'. Antalya offers not only the possibility of material success but also the open and cosmopolitan spaces of a more liberal lifestyle in an attractive climatic, scenic and cultural setting (see also Kılınç & King 2017). The article thus calls attention to the importance and singularity of 'place' as a theoretical framing of future studies of youth mobility and well-being.…”

Status Quo and Potential of Remigration Among Transylvanian Saxons to Rural Romania

“…People, for instance, return to rural areas after having completed education for family founding purposes or when they enter retirement. Especially the latter was extensively discussed in literature (Lundholm, 2015;Ciobanu and Ramos, 2016;Kılınç and King, 2017), and many have a conscious plan to return when entering retirement. Predictors identified for returning in retirement age (young-old are more likely to return) are home-ownership and presence of family members (Ciobanu and Ramos, 2016).…”

“…However, return migration can also be explained by biographic events, such as the parent's need for care or entering retirement (Ni Laoire and Stockdale, 2016). An emotional narrative of nostalgic representations of the place of childhood may also play a role, while returnees often associate a better life to the former place of living (Kılınç and King, 2017). Like return migration, lifestyle migration is addressed as a form of voluntary migration.…”