Understanding the Gendered Consequences of Migration for Occupational Attainment: Evidence from a Multi-Site and Intergenerational Study

This study is the first to investigate women's occupational status through a unique comparison of migrants from Turkey to Europe and their Europe-born descendants with the stayers in the origin country. The research base for the study is the pioneering 2000 Families Survey, which developed and used an innovative screening technique a) to locate the first-generation men who moved to Europe from high migrant-sending regions during the guest-worker years of 1961 to 1974 and their comparators from the same regions who stayed in Turkey and b) to trace their male and female family members across Turkey and ten Western Europe destination countries up to the third generation.

The results reveal a significant tendency for migrants to occupy lower occupational positions than the stayers in Turkey even after controlling for personal and parental education. The degree of disadvantage turned out to be particularly greater for migrant men from lower parental class backgrounds. Whilst their Europe-born descendants, especially the women, fare better, they are shown to obtain lower returns to their education than their stayer counterparts, regardless of gender. Parental social class is found to make a positive difference to their children’s occupational status, especially in the case of the Europe-born offspring but not to the extent that brings migrants or their descendants to the level of the stayers in Turkey. Overall, the results make a substantial contribution to migration studies by demonstrating the significance of examining the intersections between gender and migration status in understanding labour market outcomes. Our unique research shows that migration doesn’t benefit migrant men’s and women’s occupational position. Their male offspring is also not bettor off; only women descendants who were born in Europe make a substantial progress in their job status.