Marriage migration from Turkey to Switzerland: exploring the causes and the consequences for women and men

Ceren Topgul, University of Geneva
Philippe Wanner, University of Geneva

Partner choice of second generation migrants from Turkey reflects strong ties maintained between migrant populations in Europe and the place of origin, cultural and traditional norms, economic and socio-demographic situations in Turkey and in the host countries. A preliminary analysis on marriage migration from Turkey to Switzerland revealed the high prevalence of “importing spouse” choice (i.e. marriages with partner living in Turkey) for second generation men (35.5%) and women (37.5%). Behind these figures, there is still a need to 1) further investigate the trends regarding family formation behaviour of second generation; 2) model this behaviour in the light of variables such as education, age at arrival and place of residence; and 3) describe the consequences of the kind of marriage on labour market integration and fertility. Data from Swiss Census 2000 and Central Aliens Register are used for trend and multivariate analysis and results will be interpreted with the help of qualitative information resulting from in-depth interviews.