Youth Transitions among Descendants of Turkish Immigrants in Amsterdam and Strasbourg:

This open access book maps the youth transitions of descendants of migrants from Turkey living in Amsterdam and Strasbourg, through a comparative mixed-methods research design. As such, it is of interest to discussions in youth sociology, social mobility and second-generation research. The book follows transition trajectories of the second-generation, from school to activity or inactivity in the labour market, to marriage or further study and, deepens our understanding of transitions by unravelling the macro and micro mechanisms behind individual pathways. On the one hand, the author reveals the ongoing significance of distinct macro institutional settings as well as social structures such as social class, ethnicity and gender in shaping the youth transition experience. On the other, she shows that youth transitions are not predestined to social reproduction when institutional and social structures create conditions for the development of resources necessary for social mobility. Therefore, through an examination of how immigrants’ descendants develop forms of capital in their social trajectories, in relation to institutional and social structures, the book advances the theoretical discussion on Bourdieu’s capital theory. Moreover, in times when native-born descendants of immigrants are at the forefront of public debate being subjected to normative integration demands, the book significantly shifts the lens and draws our attention to the daily challenges and realities faced by ethnic minority youth

The (un)making of Dutch ‘care girls’: An ethnographic study on aspirations, internship experiences and labour market perspectives

In this study, we focus on the role of Dutch Level 2 senior vocational training in care work in relation to the prospects and options it provides for students who follow this programme. Similar to the ‘care girls’ from previous studies our participants are young women from lower-class backgrounds who aspire to various jobs in the care sector, but are steered away from their original aspirations by their vocational training programme. The major difference between this research and previous studies is that we examine the Dutch institutional and broader structural context of care work. In the Netherlan

Marriage decisions of Turkish second-generation women in Strasbourg:not a fate but a refuge

Marriage patterns of the second-generation are gaining greater attention in the US and Europe. The majority of studies so far have concentrated on partner choices and transnational marriages. An interesting case in point concerns Turkish second-generation women in France who marry at a significantly younger age than all their male and female counterparts, a decision often justified along the lines of family taking priority. This article focuses on the marriage decisions of young French women of Turkish origin in Strasbourg, while scrutinizing their experiences in education and at work. Using biographical interviews, I examine the perspectives of young women who do (or do not) have early matrimony in their trajectories. Detailed analysis of the school and work trajectories of these young women shows how marriage can function as an alternative transition pathway into adulthood, providing an understanding of marriage decision that goes beyond cultural essentialist explanations

Youth transitions among descendants of Turkish immigrants in Amsterdam and Strasbourg:A Generation in Transition

This open access book maps the youth transitions of descendants of migrants from Turkey living in Amsterdam and Strasbourg, through a comparative mixed-methods research design. As such, it is of interest to discussions in youth sociology, social mobility and second-generation research. The book follows transition trajectories of the second-generation, from school to activity or inactivity in the labour market, to marriage or further study and, deepens our understanding of transitions by unravelling the macro and micro mechanisms behind individual pathways. On the one hand, the author reveals the ongoing significance of distinct macro institutional settings as well as social structures such as social class, ethnicity and gender in shaping the youth transition experience. On the other, she shows that youth transitions are not predestined to social reproduction when institutional and social structures create conditions for the development of resources necessary for social mobility. Therefore, through an examination of how immigrants’ descendants develop forms of capital in their social trajectories, in relation to institutional and social structures, the book advances the theoretical discussion on Bourdieu’s capital theory. Moreover, in times when native-born descendants of immigrants are at the forefront of public debate being subjected to normative integration demands, the book significantly shifts the lens and draws our attention to the daily challenges and realities faced by ethnic minority youth

Youth Transitions among Descendants of Turkish Immigrants in Amsterdam and Strasbourg:

This open access book maps the youth transitions of descendants of migrants from Turkey living in Amsterdam and Strasbourg, through a comparative mixed-methods research design. As such, it is of interest to discussions in youth sociology, social mobility and second-generation research. The book follows transition trajectories of the second-generation, from school to activity or inactivity in the labour market, to marriage or further study and, deepens our understanding of transitions by unravelling the macro and micro mechanisms behind individual pathways. On the one hand, the author reveals the ongoing significance of distinct macro institutional settings as well as social structures such as social class, ethnicity and gender in shaping the youth transition experience. On the other, she shows that youth transitions are not predestined to social reproduction when institutional and social structures create conditions for the development of resources necessary for social mobility. Therefore, through an examination of how immigrants’ descendants develop forms of capital in their social trajectories, in relation to institutional and social structures, the book advances the theoretical discussion on Bourdieu’s capital theory. Moreover, in times when native-born descendants of immigrants are at the forefront of public debate being subjected to normative integration demands, the book significantly shifts the lens and draws our attention to the daily challenges and realities faced by ethnic minority youth

Activating social capital: Steep mobility of descendants of Turkish immigrants at the top of the corporate business sector

This qualitative study on steep social mobility is based on interviews with descendants of guest-worker immigrants from Turkey. They currently work in highly prestigious positions in the field of professional business services in the Netherlands. The majority of studies on social capital and career mobility is based on quantitative methods which makes it difficult to gain insight into its mechanisms. In line with Lin (Annu Rev Sociol 25:467–487, 1999) and Smith (Am J Sociol 111:1–57, 2005) the current article makes the distinction between the access to and the activation of social capital. By explaining how the professional characteristics of the social climbers triggered their network connections to become ‘donors’ (Portes A, Annu Rev Sociol 24:1–24, 1998), we attempt to shed light on the mechanisms of social capital activation. For this claim we apply the concepts of ‘likeability’ and ‘reliability’. Furthermore, we categorize two types of donors that have emerged from our data: ‘ambassadors’ and ‘coaches’. By comprehending how the descendants of migrants activated their social capital, this article gives insight into the mechanisms of their steep social mobility, and it deepens our understanding of the relation between social capital and career mobility

Are “weak ties” really weak? Social capital reliance among second generation Turkish lawyers in Paris

The chapter studies social capital development and application among highly educated Turkish second generation working in the law sector in Paris. Previously we have demonstrated how social capital was a crucial resource in the professional pathways of Turkish second generation lawyers in Sweden, the Netherlands, France and Germany. In this chapter we take our inquiry a step further analyzing the strong and weak ties that descendants of migrants relied upon in their professional pathways. We use biographical interviews conducted with descendants of migrants in France in which they explicate their entire educational and professional trajectories. We concentrate on Turkish second generation with low-educated parents hence young people who did not receive direct professional resources from their parents. We see for this group the development of professional networks already begins in tertiary education and continues into their labour market careers. The paper aims to make contributions to several strands of the literature. Firstly, it contributes to the debate on temporality of networks by showing how distinct forms of social capital became crucial in different phases of their careers and how they relied on both weak and strong ties strategically to overcome the glass ceilings in their sectors and move upwards in their pathways. Secondly, we aim to problematize the concepts of “strong” and “weak” ties in relation to their ethnic connotations. Our study shows that second generation lawyers were able to develop relations of trust with their so-called “weak ties” while the ethnic “strong ties” represented useful clientele