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Post‐migration hardship often affects the integration processes of migrants from non‐English speaking countries and in particular of migrant women who often come as ‘dependents’ of male migrants. Institutional, social and cultural barriers make integration for migrant women slow and difficult to achieve. Involvement in community self‐help and mutual aid is an important strategy for disadvantaged groups in overcoming hardship and building social networks and capital. Community organisations are a bridge for migrants to access welfare rights and benefits, and to communicate with host local communities. This paper discusses the findings of a small‐scale study on the community activism of Turkish‐speaking women in London. Focus group meetings were conducted with self‐help/mutual aid groups run by Turkish‐speaking migrant women, using a typology of group political ideology and focus of change. Analysis showed that group participation was an empowering experience and a crucial strategy for integration in the host society. Depending on the type of the group, women acknowledged personal or social benefits from group participation. Implications for promoting service user empowerment and involvement of migrant communities through mutual aid activities are considered.

The migration background can influence the life satisfaction of migrants. The purpose of this paper is to examine the life satisfaction of migrants and particularly the satisfaction regarding their health in comparison to natives.

The life satisfaction of 50 Turkish-speaking migrants living in Vienna was compared with the life satisfaction of 50 native Austrians by the questionnaire of life satisfaction by Fahrenberg et al. (2000).

Turkish-speaking migrants had lower values than natives in all scales of the questionnaire concerning life satisfaction. Turkish-speaking women reported the lowest satisfaction regarding their health state. In the migrant group the satisfaction regarding health decreased with increasing age.

The Turkish version of the questionnaire was translated into Turkish by authors but not formally validated. Furthermore acculturation strategies as well as the mental and physical health state of the participant, which can crucially influence the life satisfaction of migrants, were not surveyed.

Migrants have lower life satisfaction possibly because of their physical and mental health problems. Therefore in countries with a high proportion of migrants the health-care system should be adapted for the needs of migrants, especially for the needs of women and older migrants in order to increase the utilization of the health-care services, primarily the use of the preventive health-care services.

The results of the present study can be helpful to develop strategies for improving the life satisfaction of migrants, especially the satisfaction regarding their health.

To the authors’ knowledge, the present study is the first research project in Vienna conducted to estimate the impact of migration background on life satisfaction.

This article addresses contemporary presentations of migrants, particularly women, as dependents and a ‘burden’ on welfare. Focusing mainly on Britain, it shows that, while immigration policies increasingly restrict their access to official welfare, migrants are crucial to the provision of welfare both to their own family and community and in mainstream services, including professional roles as well as in informal employment. Migrants are involved in complex networks of caring relations, often across national boundaries, in which they may provide care to others in order to provide for dependents back home.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the career experiences of Turkish Cypriot women solicitors in Britain, by examining their choices of employment or self‐employment.

The study adopts a critical realist approach considering the macro‐contextual and micro‐agentic aspects of Turkish Cypriot women's career development. Applying “the instrumental case study” approach, it explores the career experiences of four Turkish Cypriot women solicitors. Case study material was collected through semi‐structured interviews.

The paper argues that one cannot talk of ethnic enclaves in positive or negative terms, without considering layered individual experience. Their life and career trajectory is marked by their ethnicity and migration that is characterised by dual processes of break with tradition and later return to tradition during which identities are tested and usually reaffirmed where Turkish Cypriots may rediscover their Turkish Cypriotness.

The study reveals that macro‐, meso‐ and micro‐effects are responsible for the polarisation of opportunities in the ethnic enclaves.

This chapter addresses the impact of gendered social capital in developing countries to understand the barriers and opportunities to women's entrepreneurship with social capital development and also to examine factors influencing the development of social capital for women and how the identified factors benefit the creation of their entrepreneurial activities. This study follows a systemic literature review to achieve the purpose of the research by examining the selected articles in both English and Turkish, followed by factor comparison between developing, developed countries, and world datasets obtained from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) database. The finding shows that social capital strongly impacts the entrepreneurial activities among women entrepreneurs in developing countries, especially in Turkey. Although the academic and practical studies on this field were started about two decades ago in Turkey, it has faced a radical increase in last 5 years and many practitioners and scholars working on these concepts. The clusters in English and Turkish resources are almost the same; however, the density and number of key terms are much lower in Turkish literature which shows a gap for Turkish researchers to publish more in this field to examine variables for better view about women entrepreneurship and social capital related to it.

Applying a multidisciplinary perspective combining theories about immigration, citizenship and enterprise, this paper seeks to examine the influence of the political‐institutional framework in the development of enterprise amongst Turkish immigrants in the European gateway cities, pointing to the relevance of the case study for wider theoretical debate about immigration, globalisation and enterprise.

The paper is based on information gathered from European research centres on Turkish migration and employment combined with a review of national and European legislation on immigration, citizenship, entrepreneurship and the regulation of the “informal economy”.

The findings point to change and continuity in the positioning Turkish entrepreneurs in the EU. Continuity appears in a lack of citizenship and political rights for the majority of Turkish speakers and their inability to influence the political system compared with other people. Change appears in the expansion in the number of enterprises and perhaps more significantly in the growing economic differentiation between enterprises in terms of scale and purpose. One optimistic conclusion is that many of the entrepreneurs have broken out of the economic margins despite the political constraints faced by them.

The paper identifies that immigrant‐owned enterprises in the EU are creating jobs, typically by employing co‐ethnic workers, but also workers from diverse immigrant backgrounds. The potential of Turkish self‐employment in the EU is indicated in trends which show that in The Netherlands and Germany this has been the most significant source of net additions to employment growth.

The paper provides insight into how the political‐institutional framework and legal status influence the labour market positioning and repositioning of an immigrant group.

This chapter examines men’s involvement in birth control from a feminist political-economic perspective. Fertility, and hence women’s body, is still a focus of political struggles today. In the late 1990s, the international community of population policy recognized a concept of women’s reproductive rights and adopted a rights-based discourse in place of a language of economic efficiency. At the same time, they advocated for men’s participation in family planning and burden sharing between couples. This gender-sensitive new policy was effective in achieving more successful contraception in patriarchal societies where men are decision-makers in many aspects of social life. Yet, from a feminist perspective, such a policy could threaten women’s reproductive rights if gender relations remain patriarchal. A close examination of Turkey’s fertility decline suggests that the process was led by men who increasingly aspired to have small families which they could manage to look after as wage-earning fathers. In other words, it was realized without women’s empowerment. A case study of Kurdish women conducted in Eastern Turkey where fertility rate was significantly higher than the national average indicates a positive impact of men’s involvement on effective birth control. Yet this study also suggests a risk of undermining women’s empowerment and autonomy. The promotion of men’s involvement in family planning can reinforce men’s control over women’s bodies and endorse birth control without women’s empowerment again, unless it is consciously designed in the context of reproductive rights.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the families’ and professional caregivers’ experience of mental health services for patients in the migrant population with intellectual disability (ID).

To highlight this rarely studied topic, the authors chose a qualitative approach, using a semi-structured interview guide. The authors performed a search for relevant articles. Three families of former patients of a specialized psychiatric inpatient unit and 12 professional caregivers were interviewed. The interviews were taped, transcribed and analyzed using a thematic analysis.

In total, 17 themes from the families’ answers and 14 themes from the caregivers’ answers were grouped into four main themes each. Two main themes were identical for both groups: perspectives on mental illness and “the Norwegian system.” Additionally, the families were concerned about the impact on the patient and family and coping strategies. The caregivers highlighted patient–caregiver interaction and family–caregiver interaction.

Further research should include the patients’ opinions based on the findings of this study. Also, studies including larger samples from both specialist services and community services are needed to develop evidence-based services for these patients.

Proposed adaptations to enable assessment and treatment of mental illness in migrants with ID should be adapted to cultural preferences. The following adaptations are proposed: inclusion of the entire family, awareness of cultural dimensions, information about the health care system, education in mental illness, the use of interpreters and adequate time spent with the families.

Mental health services for this group are an understudied topic. Clinical experience indicates that professionals struggle when providing services for such patients.