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Relative Income and Life Satisfaction of Turkish Immigrants: The Impact of a Collectivistic Culture

Author

Listed:
  • Dumludag, Devrim

    (Marmara University)

  • Gokdemir, Ozge

    (Istanbul University)

  • Vendrik, Maarten C.M.

    (Maastricht University)

Abstract

This study examines the effects of social comparison with a wide range of reference groups on the life satisfaction of Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands. For two sets of ethnic and life-domain reference groups, results are obtained that deviate from the findings of recent studies and that suggest the impact of the collectivistic subculture of the Turkish immigrants. Perceived importance of income comparison with Dutch natives is positively correlated to life satisfaction, supporting an interpretation of this comparison as a positive emancipatory stimulus in the pursuit of self-improvement of the Turkish immigrants. Perceived importance of income comparison with relatives in the Netherlands is positively correlated to life satisfaction as well, which can be interpreted in terms of an underlying feeling of connectedness with one's relatives. On the other hand, Turkish immigrants who have a higher household income than relatives are significantly less satisfied with their life, suggesting the unattractiveness of deviating too much from one's relatives. For other reference groups some interesting results are obtained as well.

Suggested Citation

  • Dumludag, Devrim & Gokdemir, Ozge & Vendrik, Maarten C.M., 2015. "Relative Income and Life Satisfaction of Turkish Immigrants: The Impact of a Collectivistic Culture," IZA Discussion Papers 9282, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9282
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Chenghua Guan & Yingjie Qiu & Ruopeng An, 2019. "Relative Income and Life Satisfaction among Chinese Adults," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-12, October.
    2. Devrim Dumludag & Ozge Gokdemir, 2022. "Income Aspiration, Income Comparison and Life Satisfaction: The case of Turkish Migrants in the Netherlands," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 1359-1378, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    happiness; life satisfaction; relative income; social comparison; collectivistic; immigrants;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

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