To leave or not to leave? the importance of practical constraints and individual attitudes for leaving home of Turkish, Moroccan and Dutch young adults

Helga A.G. de Valk, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Arie de Graaf, Statistics Netherlands

In this paper we study patterns of leaving home among Turkish, Moroccan and Dutch young adults between 18 and 27 years of age living in the Netherlands. Besides timing of leaving home we include reasons for and the destination after moving out. We will assess how reasons for leaving home are related to timing to move out for each of the ethnic groups. First aim of the paper is to study differences and similarities of leaving home between each of the ethnic groups. Second, we question how and to what extent practical constraints and individual preferences affect choices regarding leaving home for Turkish, Moroccan and Dutch young adults. Based on theories on the importance of intergenerational family ties we expect to find differences in the reasons for leaving home between the groups; Dutch young adults will be more likely to move out because of reasons of independence than is the case for Turkish and Moroccan young adults. Second, in line with the reasons for leaving home we hypothesize that Dutch are more likely to leave home to live on their own than is the case for young adults from the two immigrant groups. Finally, we expect that beside practical constraints also individual attitudes towards intergenerational relations and partnerships are important determinants for leaving home. For Turkish and Moroccan youth these attitudes are expected to be even more important than for Dutch young adults. The paper is based on data from the Dutch Family and Fertility Survey (2003) and the Family Fertility Survey among young immigrants (2004). Our pooled dataset includes Dutch, Turkish and Moroccan young adults between 18 and 27 years of age.