turkmen in iraq and their flight - orsam

TURKMEN IN IRAQ AND THEIR FLIGHT: A DEMOCRAPHIC QUESTION
Figure 2: Age and Gender of Household Members, Survey in Iraq
hold heads and household members. The largest
group among household members were
those aged between 20 and 45 while it was between
45 and 54 amongst the key respondents
(i.e. household heads). 23 percent of respondents
were women whilst 20 percent was never
married as opposed to 76 percent married and
4 percent divorcees, separates and widows.
International Migration Survey in Turkey:
Turkmen Diaspora
There was no previous study conducted on
Turkmen immigrants in Turkey and there was
no population framework from which we could
have drawn a representative sample for this
immigrant group. Nevertheless, we have done
our best to reach a population that will at least
reflect the variety among the diaspora community.
Also practical and budgetary restrictions
were of concern. Thus we have selected Ankara
where the supporting institution and the research
team were both based. Selection of Turkey
was because in the field study in Iraq, it appeared
that Turkey was the most popular destination
for Turkmen. This was the case possibly
both because of geographical proximity and
of cultural proximity. Second city we have selected
to collect data was Istanbul, the largest
city in Turkey and accommodates the largest
immigrant population in the country. Therefore
we have expected a sizeable community of
Turkmen would be found in these two cities.
The only list we had access was the records of
Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF) office in Ankara.
This is clearly not the perfect sampling frame
and possibly biased. Nevertheless, this was the
only option available at the time of this study.
The list is known to suffer from the fact that
many Turkmen immigrants in Turkey were not
registered despite the fact that they often needed
to register with ITF for their legal affairs in
Turkey such as police registration.
We have completed 133 questionnaires with
175 respondents who were randomly selected
from the ITF list. Age and gender breakdown
of these respondents are displayed in the figure
below. Among the respondents, the majority
were married for both gender groups.
We have also interviewed another group of 28
respondents in Istanbul where we have emplo-
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