Family Formation Migration from Turkey to Switzerland: The Motives, Consequences and Gender Implications

The international migration history from Turkey to Europe is back to the labour demand emerged in Europe in 1960s and met through the bilateral agreements between the European and Turkish governments. Following the first migration flow, international migration took other forms such as family reunion and marriage migration. Marriage migration behaviour of the immigrants has severe implications on both individuals and society since households maintain their importance in shaping the society and, specifically, in the integration of the current generation and their descendents. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the motives behind family formation migration decision of people from Turkey and its gender implications in the Switzerland context. In addition to ethnic and cultural factors, the individual and household characteristics of second generation people from Turkey residing in Switzerland and their newcomer spouses will be examined. Comparison will be made between the profiles of the people from Turkey importing his/her spouse from Turkey and of those marrying a spouse residing in Switzerland. Quantitative analysis will be held at descriptive and multivariate level using the data from Swiss alien registrations and civil registration of marriage in the light of network theory and chain migration framework. It is also aimed at performing in-depth interviews with the newcomer spouses, importing spouses and the families of the both spouses taking socio-economic, demographic and ethnic differences into consideration.