Quoting Elisa:

I translated this from an article in today's newspaper.

'8 out of 10 Turkish women who came to the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium between the age of 7 and 17, found their husband in Turkey. When it comes to the second generation Turkish women -who were born or came overhere before they were 7- 6 out of 10 married a man living in their home country. The figures for Turkish men living in Belgium are similar.

This is the result of research done by Hilâl Yalçın who works for the Organization for Equal Opportunities Policy of the Antwerp University, and under the authority of the Equal Opportunities Minister.

The number of marriages between Belgian Turks and Turks from Turkey is not decreasing. 'The most important reason for this is the negative image Belgian Turkish boys and girls have about eachother', Yalçın says. Turkish girls living in Belgium think that the Turkish boys overhere don't have much to offer, they don't have a good education and they are too traditional. They prefer a modern, high-educated Turk from Turkey. The B-TR guys think that the B-TR girls are too westernized. They prefer a traditional Turkish girl from Turkey. This image is contradictory and is fading only very slowly. During the 80's less Turkish boys and girls wanted a marriage candidate from Turkey, but their number has increased again.
Jef Gabriëls, mayor of the city of Genk, finds this evolution worrying. 'Research shows that 75% of the Turkish young people in my region would like to marry someone living here, but 75% marries someone living in Turkey. There's a huge difference between dream and reality', he says.'

Food for thought and discussion I'd think
The article also mentioned a similar research amongst Moroccan people, with similar results. The researcher said that Moroccan people living in Belgium long for something 'familiar', or 'authentic culture', while a young person living in Morocco tries to escape from those..
Do you think this goes for a lot of Turkish people as well?
I posted this article here because I think this is not just a Belgian thing, but rather a West European issue.

Quote:

elisa

Quoting ramayan:

Quoting Trudy:

Quote:

This is how I understood it:
"congrats girl, sometimes you do useful things too, there's future for you, growing up you'll be a grand human being, go on.."
and notice the hint of SARCASM

Quoting ramayan:

hope u r not offended

Quote:

elisa

Quoting Elisa:

"Turkish girls living in Belgium think that the Turkish boys overhere don't have much to offer, they don't have a good education and they are too traditional. They prefer a modern, high-educated Turk from Turkey. The B-TR guys think that the B-TR girls are too westernized. They prefer a traditional Turkish girl from Turkey. This image is contradictory and is fading only very slowly."