Identity settlement of Turkish migrants: an analysis of Turkish migrants about how their religious identities are related to their personal experiences of integrating in a new Western environment

The Netherlands is home to a diversity of cultures, ethnic backgrounds and religions. In the last decades the influx of migrants has contributed to the change of The Dutch population into a multicultural and colourful society. The increasing diversity validates the essence to create an environment where all those diverse people, each with their own identity, could live together. Although integration of migrants is recognised as a social problem, there is still no clarity, determination and even discord about the definition of this issue. This research has tried to find an answer to the question of how Turkish migrants experience the relation between their personal religious identity and integration in the Netherlands. Existing policies and theories of scholars have already indicated some possible interactions between integration and identities of migrants, but this research tried to fill the gap in the knowledge that concentrates on the own perceptions of migrants to their integration in a West society by putting emphasize on their own views, abilities and needs. Ten Turkish migrants, with a Muslim background, were interviewed in order to bring out their views on the subject.