Marriage, Norm Orientation and Leaving the Parental Home: Turkish Immigrant and Native Families in Germany

Abstract

This article investigates differences between native Germans and Turkish immigrants in the timing of leaving their parental homes in Germany. By using event history models, it is shown that leaving the parental home is closely linked to the intervening life-event of marriage, particularly among Turkish women. Moreover, there are interaction effects of religious norm orientation with gender which differ between native Germans and Turkish immigrants. In contrast to Turkish immigrants, the linkage of marriage and leaving home became much weaker over birth-cohorts with time in the group of German women. Finally, analyses of sequence patterns also show remarkable differences between native Germans and Turkish immigrants in the process of leaving home. Religious norm orientation turns out to be less important in the Turkish group than in the native German group.