Trapped in small business? An investigation of three generations of migrants from Turkey to Western Europe

Abstract

This article examines the self-employment behaviour of three generations of migrants from Turkey living in Europe to understand its implications for their economic adaptation into the receiving societies. It specifically investigates the likely generational differences in their propensity to engage in small businesses and the extent to which they are transmitted across generations. The research is based on the 2000 Families Survey, which draws parallel samples of migrant and non-migrant families from their origins in Turkey and traces them across Turkey and Europe over multiple generations. The data is drawn from a subset of personal interviews with 1743 economically active settlers nested within 836 families. The results challenge the assimilation theory but lend support to the disadvantage thesis by demonstrating that the younger generations, including the better educated, are significantly engaged in small, low status businesses of their parents regardless of their language proficiency, citizenship status and country of residence.

Can signaling assimilation mitigate hiring discrimination? Evidence from a survey experiment

“…Moreover, we test whether this phenomenon applies to all non-native applicants and whether some nationalities face higher penalties than others. We chose three immigrant communities, i.e., Spanish, Polish, and Turkish, because these communities represent salient minorities in the public debate in Switzerland and many other European countries (e.g., Triandafyllidou 2006;Friberg 2012;Eroğlu 2017). Moreover, these groups clearly differ in how culturally distant they are perceived from the native population in Switzerland (Ruedin et al, 2013).…”

Are Movers More Egalitarian than Stayers? An Intergenerational Perspective on Intra-Household Financial Decision-Making

“…There is a substantial amount of research within the international migration literature focused specifically on the transmission of (grand)parental resources, beliefs, values/attitudes, and behaviors. This literature is wide ranging in scope and explores the potential influence of intergenerational family transmissions on the availability of cultural and social capital resources (e.g., Nauck 2001); personal values or attitudes concerning gender roles, collectivism, achievement, and partner choice/intermarriage (Phalet and Schönpflug 2001; Ideama and Phalet 2007; Carol 2014; Spierings 2015; Kretschmer 2017); and behavioral patterns such as marriage arrangements and self-employment (Güveli et al 2015; Baykara-Krumme 2017; Eroğlu 2018). Some of these studies target migrant families only, while others compare migrant families with “natives” or “stayers” in the origin country.…”