Family-forming migration from Turkey to the Netherlands and Germany: Investigation of determinants of Turkish migrant women's empowerment

Netherlands introduced new requirements for the exercise the right to family forming migration in November 2004...Apart from these restrictions, another general requirement for family-forming migration to the Netherlands include pre-departure tests which discourage potential immigrants due to high costs of these tests and materials on both language and integration knowledge (MIPEX)
In 2007, a new immigration act [in Germany] came into force. While there is no distinction between family reunion and family formation, the general requirements for family migration in the German context include language tests that are taken abroad, minimum wage requirements and minimum age of 18 (MIPEX)...
This study investigated various aspects of women empowerment in the context of Turkish family-forming migration. Despite the increasingly restrictive migration policies in Western European countries, family-forming migration is not likely to end in the near future considering the not easily changeable traditional and cultural family patterns as the main motives to bring a spouse from the origin country. Thus, the story will continue not only in the Turkish context or in the Netherlands and Germany but also in other Western European countries with large immigrant populations. While the restrictive migration policies aim at greater integration of immigrants by preventing transnational endogamy, high priority by policy makers should be given to promoting greater access to resources for immigrant women that would contribute to the process of empowerment that is to be achieved by the year 2015 as specified in the third Millennium Development Goal...
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