The Consequences of International Migration for the Status of Women: A Turkish Study
Author(s)
Day, Lincoln H.; Icduygu, Ahmet
Abstract
As part of a larger inquiry into the consequences of international migration for those who remain in the country of origin, 234 adults in four Turkish provinces were interviewed concerning matters (mostly opinions) pertaining to the status of women. Three migrant-status categories were defined; (a) Returned migrants, (b) Non-migrant close kin or friends of migrants, and, as a control group, (c) All others. Controlling for age, sex, urban-rural residence, and schooling, group (a) was the most likely to express “non-traditional” views, and group (c) the least. Group (b) was in between. Of the two possible explanations for such a pattern – recruitment and socialization – we found recruitment highly significant. The evidence for socialization, however, was decidedly mixed. Some of the considerable diversity of viewpoints pertaining to the status of women found in this inquiry are doubtless causally associated with the experience of migration, whether direct or indirect. But there is also evidence here of a society in the process of rapid change; and it is these more general social changes, not migration as such, that would appear to be more likely to affect the status of women. There is little support for the contention that the type of international migration that has involved so many Turks these past three decades – migration that has for the most part been temporary and economically motivated and has consisted of movements from relatively poor agricultural or but slightly industrialized areas to rich, highly industrialized ones characterized by marked differences in language, religion, and overall culture – is going to result in moving the status of women from a more to a less “traditional” plane.
