Acculturation, transnationalism and migration intentions of the Turkish second generation in six European countries: exploring mechanisms

George Groenewold, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI)
Helga A. G. de Valk, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI) and Vrije Universiteit Brussel

There is little disagreement about whether international migration, acculturation, and transnationalism are related. Yet, the interplay between these processes is not yet well understood as conceptual models and empirical studies are scant. This paper aims to contribute to this line of research by examining these relations using survey data of descendants of Turkish immigrants born and raised in EU countries (i.e. the Turkish second generation). Data come from The Integration of the European Second Generation project (TIES). Among others, the Turkish second generation was sampled and interviewed in areas where most Turkish community members live, which are the main cities of Austria, France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland. In this paper we study (1) how acculturation preferences, involvement in transnational activities, and intentions to emigrate to Turkey are related, and (2) to what extent selected psychosocial factors (perceived exposure to discrimination, perceived religiosity, perceived self-efficacy) affect involvement in transnational activities and intentions to emigrate to Turkey, and whether such effects are mediated by acculturation preference style. We developed two conceptual models, including hypothesized causal pathways between model variables, and transformed these into a series of simultaneous regression equations. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) results confirm various of the postulated effects and pathways between acculturation, transnationalism and migration intentions, and also that acculturation preference style indeed mediates part of the effect that some of the psychosocial variables have on involvement in transnational activities, and on emigration intentions.