European Journal of Population: Partner Choice Patterns Among the Descendants of Turkish Immigrants in Europe

Context also plays an important role in partner choice outcomes. The descriptiveoverview of partner choice showed that the Turkish second generation overwhelmingly preferred first-generation partners from their parents’ country of origin. Onlyin Germany (Berlin and Frankfurt) did the majority of second-generation Turks optfor a partner from their own second generation. It is possible that the very largenumber of Turkish descendants in Germany compared to the other countries mayplay a role here. A second-generation partner represents the second or even thirdpreferred option in the other countries. While, in general, rather similar partnerchoice outcomes could be observed in the different countries, multivariate analysissuggests that context factors influenced the choice between the first- and secondgeneration partners. The findings indicated that part of the preference for firstgeneration partners was connected to low numbers of Turkish second-generationyouths at the city level and access to welfare state provisions and policies thatpromote multicultural integration, allowing more cultural expression and easierfamily reunification. This overall supported hypotheses 4 and 5, although thefindings remain tentative and need to be tested further, as we could not test it rigorously...Read more