http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3902-4486
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ABSTRACT
This article empirically investigates the impact of internal migration on women’s empowerment in urban areas of Turkey. Based on data from a nationally representative household survey, we find that migration exerts a positive impact in urban settings through improvements in educational attainment and labor market outcomes. Migration contributes to women’s empowerment by raising their education levels and lowering the gap in schooling between men and women. Migration also allows migrants, both men and women and particularly those with tertiary education, to access jobs and occupations in high wage regions like Istanbul. However, unlike in education, a gender wage gap persists even after migration.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Note on contributors
Değer Eryar is an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at Izmir University of Economics. He received his PhD from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where he completed his dissertation on the macroeconomic impact of capital flows in Turkey. His research concentrates on gender and youth dimensions of the labor market, economic integration and financial crises. His articles have appeared in journals such as Comparative Economic Studies, Developing Economies and The Journal of Labor Research.
Hasan Tekgüç received his PhD in Economics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in June 2010. His dissertation focused on consumption behavior of households and their vulnerability to poverty. Between 2011 and 2015 he held an assistant professor position at Mardin Artuklu University, and since September 2015 he has worked at at Kadir Has University. His research interests include competition and price transmission in animal product markets and gender issues in labor markets in Turkey. His recent publications have appeared in The Review of Economics of the Household, Agribusiness, Developing Economies, and The Journal of Labor Research.
Sule Toktas is a professor of political science in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Kadir Has University in Istanbul. Her research interests include women’s studies, minority issues and migration. Her publications have appeared in various journals such as International Migration, Geopolitics, Political Science Quarterly, Women’s Studies International Forum, European Journal of Women Studies, Minerva and The Muslim World. She has also co-authored four books.
ORCID
Sule Toktas http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1332-2039
Notes
1. Kabeer, “Resources, Agency, Achievements”; Narayan, “Conceptual Framework”; and Sinha, Jha and Negi, “Migration and Empowerment.”
2. Kabeer, “Discussing Women’s Empowerment,” and Narayan, Empowerment.
3. Malhotra, “Measuring Empowerment.”
4. Sen, “Introduction: The Many Faces.”
5. Schuler and Hahemi, “Defining and Studying.”
6. Momsen, Domestic Service.
7. Bello-Bravo, “Rural-urban Migration.”
8. Narazani et al., “Policy Brief on Migration.”
9. The Turkish Statistical Institute, “The Results.”
10. Accordingly with the Law No. 6360 on metropolitan municipalities enacted in 2012, TurkStat significantly altered the definition of the rural area and discontinued releasing data about the urban-rural divide after the revision. According to one of the last available data from a Labor Force Survey, the share of urban population is 77.3 percent and rural population is 22.7 percent.
11. Erman, “The Politics of Squatter.”
12. The phenomenon of shantytowns in the peripheries of cities especially metropolitan cities reveal the trends, tendencies and workings of migration from rural-to-urban settlements. There is also a flow, albeit small in scope and frequency, from urban-to-rural and from rural-to-rural settlements.
13. Icduygu, “Demographic Mobility.”
14. Similar questions for foreign-born Turkish nationals are also available in the survey.
15. Dustmann and Glitz, “How Do Industries Respond.”
16. Ibid.
17. Castles and Miller, “Theories of Migration,” 25.
18. UN, “Human Development Report.”
19. Becker, Human Capital.
20. Dustmann and Glitz, “How Do Industries Respond.”
21. Blunch and Laderchi, “The Winner Takes It All,” and Girsberger, “Migration, Education and Work.”
22. Dustmann and Glitz, “How Do Industries Respond.”
23. Jha and Kumar, “Socio-economic Determinants.”
24. Chiswick and Miller, “Earnings and Occupational Attainment,” and Maani, Dai and Inkson, “Occupational Attainment.”
25. Elliot and Lindley, “Immigrant Wage Differentials.”
26. Aleksnyska and Tritah, “Occupation–Education Mismatch.”
27. Eckstein and Weiss, “On the Wage Growth,” and Borjas, “The Slowdown.”
28. Jha and Kumar, “Socio-economic Determinants.”
29. Kusadokoro and Hasegawa, “The Influence.”
30. Gümüş, “The Effects of Community.”
31. Tansel, “Determinants of School Attainment”; Smits and Gündüz-Hoşgör, “Effects of Family”; and Duman, “Female Education.”
32. Oyvat and Tekgüç, Double Squeeze.
33. International Labour Organization, Global Employment.
34. Aleksnyska and Tritah, “Occupation-Education Mismatch.”
35. Dustmann and Glitz, “How Do Industries Respond.”
36. Erman et al. “Money-Earning Activities.”
37. Bahar, “The Name Says It All.”
38. More than 90 percent of high school and tertiary graduate wage earners are employed in formal sector. LTHS graduate wage employed women are the only sub-group where it is almost an even split between formal and informal wage employment.
39. Bijwaard and Whaba, “Immigrants’ Wage Growth.”
40. All the more so in academia where there are high education levels, gender wage gap persists. See Ucal, O’Neil and Toktaş, “Gender and the Wage Gap.”
41. Tekgüç et al. presents a wage decomposition analysis of gender wage gap and reports that after controlling for selection tertiary educated women face 8 percent wage discrimination and less educated women face 23 percent wage discrimination in 2011. See Tekgüç, Eryar and Cindoğlu, “Women’s Tertiary Education.”
42. Gaye and Shreyasi, “Measuring Women’s Empowerment,” 53.
43. Hugo, “Migration and Women’s Empowerment.”
44. Yu, An Empowerment Approach.
45. Ghosh, “Migration and Gender,” 30.
46. Handapangoda, “Transnational Labour Migration.”
47. Zentgraf, “Immigration.”
48. Erman et al. “Money-Earning Activities.”
49. Cindoğlu and Toktaş, “Empowerment and Resistance Strategies of Working Women.”
50. Dedeoğlu, “Visible Hands.”
51. Paker and Uysal, “Who Takes Care.”