Health, Wealth or Family Ties? Why Turkish Work Migrants Return from Germany

Bibliographic Data

ID3607635
AuthorsOliver Razum (0000-0002-1244-7649, Bielefeld University, corresponding author), Nuriye N Sahin-Hodoglugil, Karin M Polit, Karin Polit
Year2005
Volume31
Issue4
Pages719-739
Publication date2005-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Community (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13691830500109894
OpenAlexW1967887235
LanguageEN
Citations received56
References cited23

In the 1960s and 1970s, hundreds of thousands of Turkish workers migrated to Germany. Some settled there, others returned to Turkey after a few years. To explore how the experience of life between two cultures and in transnational families affected the decision to return, we conducted focus-group sessions with male returnees in Turkey who had spent varying lengths of time in Germany. Return was rarely based on purely economic or health-related motives; value-oriented and emotional themes almost always played a role. There were complex interactions between particular themes, e.g. perceived health status and economic success. We organised our findings into three ‘ideal types’: first, the ‘nostalgic’ returned migrant who is facing socio-economic problems in Turkey and has a transfigured notion of life in Germany which he would like to but cannot resume; second, the ‘cultural traditionalist’ who considers Turkish culture superior and left Germany without remorse after having made some money; and third, the ‘player of two systems’ who thrives in both Turkey and Germany. This typology helps to structure and understand the complex themes underlying the decision to return-migrate

Demographic economics · Economics · Family ties · Genealogy · Labour economics · Political science · Turkish · Employment and Welfare Studies · Engineering · History · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Health and Trauma