How do low-income Kurdish migrant women reconstruct their lives in an inner-city neighborhood of Istanbul?: experiences of migration and adaptation to life in the city
type: CreativeWork
description: The primary goal of this ethnographic study was to understand low-income Kurdish mothers’ experiences with and meaning-making of their lives after forced and/or “voluntary” migration from the southeast region of Turkey to Istanbul. The study situated mothers and families within the multiple contexts they were embedded in, using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological framework. Informed by strengths perspective and structure versus human agency theories, the study focused on women’s coping strategies and agency, while also identifying challenges faced by Kurdish mothers within their immediate and larger contexts. The study also inquired into mothers’ beliefs around child education and child labor as this population has been identified as at-risk for child labor in the literature. The research took place in Tarlabaşı, an inner-city neighborhoods that is largely populated by low-income Kurdish migrants in Istanbul, Turkey. Twenty-eight mothers were recruited through purposive and snowball sampling. A short demographic survey provided demographic data on participants and their families. In semi-structured in-depth interviews, mothers discussed their migration process and its social, emotional, and financial consequences for themselves and their families. They also talked about strategies they used to navigate through challenges they faced on a daily basis, the impact of gender on their lives, and their attitudes and beliefs about childhood, child labor, and child education. Participant observations focused on the social and physical characteristics of the neighborhood, interactions between mothers and their children, particular strategies mothers used to protect their children in the urban context, and on mothers’ interactions with their neighbors as potential sources of social support. Turkey Census and historical data provided background information and context to the study, whereas newspapers’ helped in understanding the attitude of the public towards Kurdish population, and th…
abstract: The primary goal of this ethnographic study was to understand low-income Kurdish mothers’ experiences with and meaning-making of their lives after forced and/or “voluntary” migration from the southeast region of Turkey to Istanbul. The study situated mothers and families within the multiple contexts they were embedded in, using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological framework. Informed by strengths perspective and structure versus human agency theories, the study focused on women’s coping strategies and agency, while also identifying challenges faced by Kurdish mothers within their immediate and larger contexts. The study also inquired into mothers’ beliefs around child education and child labor as this population has been identified as at-risk for child labor in the literature. The research took place in Tarlabaşı, an inner-city neighborhoods that is largely populated by low-income Kurdish migrants in Istanbul, Turkey. Twenty-eight mothers were recruited through purposive and snowball sampling. A short demographic survey provided demographic data on participants and their families. In semi-structured in-depth interviews, mothers discussed their migration process and its social, emotional, and financial consequences for themselves and their families. They also talked about strategies they used to navigate through challenges they faced on a daily basis, the impact of gender on their lives, and their attitudes and beliefs about childhood, child labor, and child education. Participant observations focused on the social and physical characteristics of the neighborhood, interactions between mothers and their children, particular strategies mothers used to protect their children in the urban context, and on mothers’ interactions with their neighbors as potential sources of social support. Turkey Census and historical data provided background information and context to the study, whereas newspapers’ helped in understanding the attitude of the public towards Kurdish population, and th…
author: Sensoy Bahar, Ozge
language: en
keywords: Kurdish women, urban migration, poverty, inner-city neighborhood, gender, child labor, ethnography
date published: 2014-01-16T18:18:29Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:25:38Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/46847