The Third Generation: Dissimilation from Origins and Assimilation into Destination (ThirdGen) is a research project looking at the seldom-studied third generation to reveal the enduring impact and transformative influence of migration. Its primary aim is to tackle the issue of migrant groups from Muslim majority countries integrating slowly or not fully into Western European destinations.
The team behind ThirdGen are researching the lives of the grandchildren of Turkish guest workers, the largest non-EU diaspora with well over five million members in Europe. The ThirdGen project funding is awarded by European Research Council (ERC) Consolidators programme (€2.75million) and funded by UK Research and Innovation (£2.5million).
Innovative
This innovative and ground-breaking large-scale examination of the grandchildren of guest workers will generate invaluable data to address questions that will help us better understand the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic attainment and family processes, such as care, gender attitudes, religious beliefs and behaviours, comparing them to their Turkish counterparts who stayed in their home country.
The project is interdisciplinary, drawing on sociology, demography, social psychology and migration studies. It will break new ground in integration and international migration studies, sociology, demography and psychology. The findings will inform policies and improve public understanding and awareness of the long-term transformative impact of migration.
2000 Families dataset
The team, led by Professor Ayse Guveli at the University of Warwick, will interview grandchildren identified in the unique 2000 Families dataset, which has traced three generations of 50,000 migrant family members in Europe and non-migrants in Turkey. The dataset was created as part of an earlier NORFACE funded project also led by Ayse called 2000 Families.
ThirdGen’s dissimilation from origins conceptual perspective will shed light on generational change and continuity by comparing the grandchildren of migrants to their grandparents and non-migrant counterparts in the origin country: Turkey. It will consider multiple destinations: Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Austria, UK, Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden.