Marriage in a ‘Culture of Migration’. Emirdag Marrying into Flanders

The persistently high popularity of migration marriages within large immigrant populations in Western Europe is an intriguing phenomenon. Why do so many young people born and raised in Western Europe opt for an unknown partner coming from a region that, although it is where their parents or grandparents came from, is by and large unknown to them personally? This contribution attempts to shed some light on the dynamics of this particular kind of migration which impacts significantly on the social fabric of Western European societies. Our focus here is specifically on the Belgian case, namely the so-called ‘Emirdag connection’. In Belgium, the majority of immigrants with a Turkish background come from the region of Emirdag, in the province of Afyon. Over the last 40 years a close relationship has been established between this region of emigration and a number of Turkish communities in Flanders and Brussels. Over the last decade chain migration became for most the most popular means to enter Belgium; in other words, the majority of newcomers arrived in Belgium as (future) spouses of Belgian residents. This certainly applies to Turkish migration. Particular to the Turkish residents in Belgium, including the second generation, is that the majority still marry a person who grew up in Turkey.