Sibling Influences on Educational Attainment – Does International Migration Make a Difference?

Research in family, education, and social inequality has long focused on intergenerational relationships and parent-child transmission patterns. Recently, however, attention has increasingly turned to sibling relationships and their influence on individual life chances and well-being. Studies show the salience of intragenerational transmission effects and how they vary by factors such as age difference, gender, and sibling number. Migration and integration research has also identified strong sibling effects, particularly from older siblings, in migrant families—sometimes exceeding those in non-migrant families. Yet, the unique dynamics of transnational migration on sibling relationships remain underexplored.

We aim to add to this debate by addressing migration differences from a comparative perspective, considering both migrants and stayers from the same origin contexts. We theorize that transnationality, in general, complicates older siblings' ability to transmit, and younger siblings' capacity to utilize, older siblings’ cultural capital (e.g., knowledge, educational qualifications). Further, transnational social spaces between siblings hinder social exchanges, particularly those that rely on physical proximity, such as practical help, caregiving, and emotional support.

We employ data from the 2000 Families Study (Migration Histories of Turks in Europe), which used a family-based and transnational design to systematically analyze the role of the country of origin (Turkey) and destination country, as well as differences between European residence contexts. Our analysis includes the highest educational qualifications and where they were obtained (Turkey vs. EU). Preliminary results from multivariate regression models show that the educational influence of older siblings is indeed lower in migrant contexts (EU) than in stayer contexts (Turkey). We discuss these findings in the context of migration and family research.