Transnational heritage migrants in Istanbul: second generation Turk American and Turk German 'Returnees' in their parents' homeland
ABSTRACT This paper addresses several less explored dimensions of current scholarship on globalisation, migration and transnationalism: north south migration streams, the role of second generation 'heritage migrants' and the importance of social capital within unequal transnational social fields. We compare two circuits of second generation migrants, Turk Germans and Turk Americans, engaged in 'intensive transnationalism' having independently moved to reside in their parents' homeland. Istanbul becomes the site of homeland return for these distinct streams of educated heritage migrants. Cross national comparison of the children of the more stigmatised Turk German 'guest workers' with the socially less salient Turk Americans of middle class backgrounds offers insight into the way class networks and national capital are distinctly leveraged by adult children with immigrant parents of distinct contexts of homeland exit.