IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v49y2012i14p3139-3158.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Remitting Behaviour of Turkish Migrants: Evidence from Household Data in Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Hulya Ulku

Abstract

This paper provides an empirical analysis of the remittances of Turkish migrants using novel data from 589 households in Berlin, which holds the largest Turkish community outside Turkey. The findings suggest that the remittances of Turkish migrants are determined mainly by a combination of self-interest and tempered altruism. Comparison of migrant groups who do and do not intend to return to Turkey shows that those intending to return remit mostly for self-interest and remit larger amounts, while those with no such intention remit mainly due to implicit loan agreement within the family. There is no evidence of pure altruism in any of the samples. In addition, remitters are more likely to increase the amount of remittances where they are to be spent on education and investment. The same relationship does not hold for basic needs.

Suggested Citation

  • Hulya Ulku, 2012. "Remitting Behaviour of Turkish Migrants: Evidence from Household Data in Germany," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(14), pages 3139-3158, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:49:y:2012:i:14:p:3139-3158
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098012437747
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098012437747
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098012437747?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Claus Mueller, 2006. "Integrating Turkish communities: a German dilemma," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 25(5), pages 419-441, December.
    2. Adams, Richard Jr. & Page, John, 2005. "Do international migration and remittances reduce poverty in developing countries?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(10), pages 1645-1669, October.
    3. Stark, Oded & Bloom, David E, 1985. "The New Economics of Labor Migration," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(2), pages 173-178, May.
    4. Taylor, J. Edward, 1992. "Remittances and inequality reconsidered: Direct, indirect, and intertemporal effects," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 187-208, April.
    5. Içduygu, Ahmet, 2009. "International Migration and Human Development in Turkey," MPRA Paper 19235, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Sayan, Serdar & Tekin-Koru, Ayca, 2007. "Remittances, Business Cycles and Poverty: The Recent Turkish Experience," MPRA Paper 6029, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Dustmann, Christian & Mestres, Josep, 2010. "Remittances and temporary migration," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 62-70, May.
    8. Knowles, James C. & Anker, Richard, 1981. "An analysis of income transfers in a developing country : The case of Kenya," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 205-226, April.
    9. M. Piracha & Y. Zhu, 2012. "Precautionary savings by natives and immigrants in Germany," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(21), pages 2767-2776, July.
    10. Christopher F Baum & Mark E Schaffer & Steven Stillman, 2002. "IVENDOG: Stata module to calculate Durbin-Wu-Hausman endogeneity test after ivreg," Statistical Software Components S494401, Boston College Department of Economics, revised 29 May 2007.
    11. Sarah A. Blue, 2004. "State Policy, Economic Crisis, Gender, and Family Ties: Determinants of Family Remittances to Cuba," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 80(1), pages 63-82, January.
    12. Jorge Durand & William Kandel & Emilio Parrado & Douglas Massey, 1996. "International migration and development in mexican communities," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 33(2), pages 249-264, May.
    13. World Bank, 2008. "The Migration and Remittances Factbook 2008," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6383, December.
    14. Serdar Sayan, 2004. "Guest Workers' Remittances and Output Fluctuations in Host and Home Countries : The Case of Remittances from Turkish Workers in Germany," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(6), pages 68-81, November.
    15. Thomas Bauer & Mathias Sinning, 2011. "The savings behavior of temporary and permanent migrants in Germany," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(2), pages 421-449, April.
    16. Bernheim, B Douglas & Shleifer, Andrei & Summers, Lawrence H, 1986. "The Strategic Bequest Motive," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(3), pages 151-182, July.
    17. Cox, Donald & Eser, Zekeriya & Jimenez, Emmanuel, 1998. "Motives for private transfers over the life cycle: An analytical framework and evidence for Peru," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 57-80, February.
    18. Ahmet Içduygu, 2009. "International Migration and Human Development in Turkey," Human Development Research Papers (2009 to present) HDRP-2009-52, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), revised Oct 2009.
    19. Poirine, Bernard, 1997. "A theory of remittances as an implicit family loan arrangement," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 589-611, January.
    20. Mathias Sinning, 2011. "Determinants of savings and remittances: empirical evidence from immigrants to Germany," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 45-67, March.
    21. Johnson, George E & Whitelaw, W E, 1974. "Urban-Rural Income Transfers in Kenya: An Estimated-Remittances Function," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 22(3), pages 473-479, April.
    22. Ken Clark & Stephen Drinkwater, 2007. "An Investigation Of Household Remittance Behaviour: Evidence From The United Kingdom," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 75(6), pages 717-741, December.
    23. Devesh KAPUR, 2004. "Remittances: The New Development Mantra?," G-24 Discussion Papers 29, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
    24. Merkle, Lucie & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 1992. "Savings, remittances, and return migration," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 77-81, January.
    25. Rapoport, Hillel & Docquier, Frederic, 2006. "The Economics of Migrants' Remittances," Handbook on the Economics of Giving, Reciprocity and Altruism, in: S. Kolm & Jean Mercier Ythier (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Giving, Altruism and Reciprocity, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 17, pages 1135-1198, Elsevier.
    26. Brown, Richard P. C., 1997. "Estimating remittance functions for Pacific Island Migrants," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 613-626, January.
    27. Adams, Richard H, Jr, 1998. "Remittances, Investment, and Rural Asset Accumulation in Pakistan," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 47(1), pages 155-173, October.
    28. Nicholas P. Glytsos, 1997. "Remitting Behaviour of “Temporary” and “Permanent” Migrants: The Case of Greeks in Germany and Australia," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 11(3), pages 409-435, November.
    29. KIrdar, Murat G., 2009. "Labor market outcomes, savings accumulation, and return migration," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 418-428, August.
    30. Ziesemer Thomas H.W., 2009. "Worker Remittances and Growth: The Physical and Human Capital Channels," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 229(6), pages 743-773, December.
    31. Lucas, Robert E B & Stark, Oded, 1985. "Motivations to Remit: Evidence from Botswana," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(5), pages 901-918, October.
    32. Ahmet Murat Alper & Bilin Neyapti, 2006. "Determinants of Workers' Remittances: Turkish Evidence from High-Frequency Data," Eastern European Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(5), pages 91-100, October.
    33. Ceyhun Bora Durdu & Serdar Sayan, 2010. "Emerging Market Business Cycles with Remittance Fluctuations," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 57(2), pages 303-325, June.
    34. Åule Akkoyunlu & Konstantin A. Kholodilin, 2008. "A Link Between Workers' Remittances and Business Cycles in Germany and Turkey," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(5), pages 23-40, September.
    35. World Bank, 2011. "World Development Indicators 2011," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2315, December.
    36. Hoddinott, John, 1994. "A Model of Migration and Remittances Applied to Western Kenya," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 46(3), pages 459-476, July.
    37. Funkhouser, Edward, 1995. "Remittances from International Migration: A Comparison of El Salvador and Nicaragua," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 77(1), pages 137-146, February.
    38. Osili, Una Okonkwo, 2007. "Remittances and savings from international migration: Theory and evidence using a matched sample," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 446-465, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Imran Khan & Darshita Fulara Gunwant, 2023. "Is the remittance inflow to the Turkish economy sustainable? A glimpse of the future through the lens of the past," Review of Applied Socio-Economic Research, Pro Global Science Association, vol. 25(1), pages 34-51, June.
    2. Serkan Çiçek & Vladimir Gligorov & Michael Landesmann & Roman Römisch & Hermine Vidovic, 2014. "Monthly Report No. 9/2014," wiiw Monthly Reports 2014-09, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    3. Meyer, Wiebke & Mollers, Judith & Buchenrieder, Gertrud, 2012. "A behavioural approach to remittances analysis," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126428, International Association of Agricultural Economists.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Giulia Bettin & Riccardo Lucchetti, 2016. "Steady streams and sudden bursts: persistence patterns in remittance decisions," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(1), pages 263-292, January.
    2. Meyer, Wiebke, 2012. "Motives for remitting from Germany to Kosovo," Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Transition Economies, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), volume 69, number 69.
    3. Giulia Bettin & Riccardo Lucchetti & Claudia Pigini, 2016. "State dependence and unobserved heterogeneity in a double hurdle model for remittances: evidence from immigrants to Germany," Mo.Fi.R. Working Papers 127, Money and Finance Research group (Mo.Fi.R.) - Univ. Politecnica Marche - Dept. Economic and Social Sciences.
    4. Giulia Bettin & Riccardo Lucchetti & Alberto Zazzaro, 2009. "Income, consumption and remittances: evidence from immigrants to Australia," Mo.Fi.R. Working Papers 34, Money and Finance Research group (Mo.Fi.R.) - Univ. Politecnica Marche - Dept. Economic and Social Sciences.
    5. Kaczmarczyk, Pawel, 2013. "Money for Nothing? Ukrainian Immigrants in Poland and their Remitting Behaviors," IZA Discussion Papers 7666, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Bettin, Giulia & Lucchetti, Riccardo & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2012. "Endogeneity and sample selection in a model for remittances," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 370-384.
    7. Bettin, Giulia & Lucchetti, Riccardo & Pigini, Claudia, 2018. "A dynamic double hurdle model for remittances: evidence from Germany," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 365-377.
    8. William Collier & Matloob Piracha & Teresa Randazzo, 2018. "Remittances and return migration," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 174-202, February.
    9. Ibrahim Sirkeci & Jeffrey H. Cohen & Dilip Ratha, 2012. "Migration and Remittances during the Global Financial Crisis and Beyond," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13092, December.
    10. Puja Guha, 2014. "Economics of Migration and Remittances: A Review Article," Working Papers id:5618, eSocialSciences.
    11. Mathias Sinning, 2011. "Determinants of savings and remittances: empirical evidence from immigrants to Germany," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 45-67, March.
    12. Matthieu Delpierre, 2012. "The impact of liquidity constraints and imperfect commitment on migration decisions of offspring of rural households," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 153-170, March.
    13. Tigran A. Melkonyan & Mr. David A. Grigorian, 2008. "Microeconomic Implications of Remittances in an Overlapping Generations Model with Altruism and Self-Interest," IMF Working Papers 2008/019, International Monetary Fund.
    14. Dustmann, Christian & Mestres, Josep, 2010. "Remittances and temporary migration," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 62-70, May.
    15. Giulia Bettin, 2012. "The remittance behaviour of African diaspora in Belgium," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(2), pages 157-157.
    16. Zizi GOSCHIN & Monica ROMAN, 2012. "Determinants of the remitting behaviour of Romanian emigrants in an economic crisis context," Eastern Journal of European Studies, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 3, pages 87-103, December.
    17. Bettin, Giulia & Paçacı Elitok, Seçil & Straubhaar, Thomas, 2012. "Causes and consequences of the downturn in financial remittances to Turkey: A descriptive approach," Edition HWWI: Chapters, in: Paçacı Elitok, Seçil & Straubhaar, Thomas (ed.), Turkey, migration and the EU, volume 5, pages 133-166, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI).
    18. Rapoport, Hillel & Docquier, Frederic, 2006. "The Economics of Migrants' Remittances," Handbook on the Economics of Giving, Reciprocity and Altruism, in: S. Kolm & Jean Mercier Ythier (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Giving, Altruism and Reciprocity, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 17, pages 1135-1198, Elsevier.
    19. Matthieu Delpierre & Bertrand Verheyden, 2014. "Remittances, savings and return migration under uncertainty," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-43, December.
    20. Chowdhury Murshed & Das Anupam, 2016. "Remittance Behaviour of Chinese and Indian Immigrants in Canada," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 67(2), pages 185-208, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:49:y:2012:i:14:p:3139-3158. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.