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The lived experience of an integration paradox: why high-skilled migrants from Turkey experience little national belonging in the Netherlands

ABSTRACT How do migrants become part of a national community and feel a sense of belonging to that country? Whilst migrants’ educational level is considered key in doing so, survey studies conclude that higher-educated migrants experience a low sense of belonging to the residence country. This has been dubbed the integration paradox. We draw from in-depth qualitative biographical interviews with highly-skilled Turkish migrants in the Netherlands to contribute to understanding how this so-called paradox can come about. Purposeful sampling from the New Immigrants Survey allows for rich data that reflect those who, according to the survey, experience a paradox (N = 15) and those who do not (N = 17). First, we find that some migrants interpret national belonging in more complex ways than was intended by often-used survey items measuring this concept. Many highly-skilled migrants experience little belonging to a single nation, but instead identify with a supranational entity. Some self-identified world citizens are therefore categorised as ‘paradoxical’ because they experience belonging nowhere in specific. Second, we find multiple conditions that structure (non-)belonging, such as experiencing non-belonging due to exclusion from both Dutch and Dutch-Turkish communities, and might explain the paradox. These insights shed new light on the mechanisms underpinning the integration paradox. English Video Abstract Read the transcript Watch the video on Vimeo Dutch Video Abstract Read the transcript Watch the video on Vimeo Turkish Video Abstract Read the transcript Watch the video on Vimeo