This chapter presents the methodological approach taken to empirically investigate migrant poverty. It starts by depicting the key characteristics of the target population and the sample to demonstrate its appropriateness for the exploration of migrant poverty from a multi-site and intergenerational perspective. This is followed by a presentation of the survey design and implementation, along with the methods, techniques and instruments used in sampling, data collection and analysis. The chapter ends with a detailed exposition of the dependent and independent variables and their links to the resource-based model.

Target migrant population and the sample

The research base for this study is the 2000 Families Survey, primarily interested in the guest-worker movement from Turkey to Europe. This process began in the early 1960s with Turkey’s signing of bilateral agreements with many Northern and Western European countries that had sought to tackle the labour shortages they had experienced in the aftermath of the Second World War by recruiting labour from Eastern and Southern Europe. About one million people, typically men, left Turkey to work in the mining, manufacturing and construction industries of these countries, and came to form the largest guest-worker population in Europe (Akgündüz 2008). A large portion of the movers was from the rural parts of the country, and the five regions (that is, Acıpayam, Akçaabat, Emirdağ, Kulu and Şarkışla) screened by the Survey remain among the areas that witnessed some of the highest levels of outmigration at the time (Güveli et al 2015). The guest-worker agreements ended with the economic crisis in the mid-1970s; yet migration from Turkey to Europe has continued to date for a range of reasons, from family formation and unification to education, employment and political asylum (Güveli et al 2017). Today, approximately five million people with origins in Turkey are estimated to live in Europe spanning multiple destinations and generations (Güveli et al 2017).

The Survey charted family genealogies of male ancestors who moved during guest-worker years and their counterparts who remained in the country of origin up to the fourth generation. This involved screening the aforementioned regions to identify ‘migrant’ and ‘non- migrant’ families.