The Integration of the European Second Generation (TIES)

TIES (The Integration of the European Second Generation) began in 2005 as a research project on the second generation in eight EU countries under the direction of the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies (IMES) at the University of Amsterdam and the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI).

The TIES study focuses on the descendants of immigrants from Turkey, Yugoslavia (descendants of Yugoslav "guest workers") and Morocco, whereby the "second generation" is defined as the children of immigrants who were born and live in their parents' country of immigration. At the time of the survey, the respondents were between 18 and 35 years old. A control group of respondents of "non-migrant" origin was also interviewed. As migration is largely an urban phenomenon, the study was conducted in 15 cities in eight EU countries: Paris and Strasbourg in France, Berlin and Frankfurt am Main in Germany, Madrid and Barcelona in Spain, Vienna and Linz in Austria, Amsterdam and Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Brussels and Antwerp in Belgium, Zurich and Basel in Switzerland and Stockholm in Sweden. In almost all cities, three different groups of different ethnic-national origin were interviewed, namely two groups of the second generation and a control group of autochthonous origin. The respective second-generation groups were of Turkish and Moroccan origin in the Netherlands and Belgium and of Turkish and Yugoslavian origin in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In France and Sweden, only the second generation of Turkish origin and the control group were studied, in Spain only Moroccans of second generation and the control group.

The TIES study group consisted of nine national partners and an international coordination unit. The German Volkswagen Foundation provided funding for a core study among second-generation Turks in five countries. Additional national and international funding, particularly from ESF ECRP and the Bertelsmann Foundation, allowed the TIES survey to be extended to three more countries and to include two additional groups of respondents.

Results report Germany:
 Inken Sürig/Maren Wilmes, Die Integration der zweiten Generation in Deutschland. Ergebnisse der TIES-Studie zur türkischen und jugoslawischen Einwanderung (IMIS-Beiträge, H. 39), Osnabrück 2011

English version:
 Inken Sürig/Maren Wilmes, The Integration of the Second Generation in Germany, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2015.