URBAN FACTORS IN HIGHLY SKILLED MOBILITY: THE CASE OF TURKISH MIGRANTS IN THE NETHERLANDS

Date

2025-4-25

Author

Saçın, Hülya

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Migration, driven by the search for better opportunities, plays a vital role in human life and has gained greater importance amid the ongoing planetary crisis. Factors such as resource depletion, wars, natural disasters, and socio-economic injustices have fueled migration throughout history. In the case of international migration from Türkiye to Europe, labour migration that began in the 1960s gradually became permanent. Since the 1990s, political and economic challenges have further accelerated brain drain, with highly skilled individuals increasingly seeking better living opportunities abroad. Recently, there has been a notable surge in the migration of highly skilled Turkish individuals to European countries, particularly the Netherlands. Although exact numbers are hard to determine, the Turkish-Dutch community has grown substantially, with over 170,000 individuals recorded between 1996 and 2022. Various studies highlight personal trajectories, political, social, economic, and urban factors, as significant drivers of this migration. This study investigates the urban factors in shaping the locational preferences of highly skilled Turkish migrants who moved to the Netherlands between 2000 and 2024. Data were collected from 196 participants through semi-structured online surveys using social media platforms and communication networks with the snowball sampling method and were analyzed through a mixed-methods approach. The findings reveal that spatial factors such as infrastructure and spatial quality play a significant role in the migration decisions of highly skilled Turkish individuals in the Netherlands who participated in this study. Moreover, while non-spatial factors like the social and cultural environment and urban activities remain critical, spatial considerations exert an equal influence in that case. Ultimately, this research emphasizes the importance of holistic urban planning to attract and retain highly skilled individuals.

Subject Keywords

Highly Skilled Migration, Spatial and Non-Spatial Motivations, Urban Competitiveness, Locational Preferences

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/114967

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis