Saygı, Hasret;
Young, Sara;
(2025)
Narratives of sacrifice and aspiration: Turkish middle-class families and educational migration to London.
Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development
10.1080/01434632.2025.2581861.
(In press).
Preview |
PDF
Narratives of sacrifice and aspiration Turkish middle-class families and educational migration to London.pdf - Published Version Download (1MB) | Preview |
Abstract
This article examines the narrative construction of educational aspirations as drivers of migration among a new wave of middle-class Turkish families relocating to London. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 12 families, the study adopts a narrative-analytic approach to explore the ways migrant mothers use language to frame their decisions, articulate aspirations, and position themselves and their children within both Turkish and British social contexts. The findings reveal how mothers frame migration as an act of ‘starting over,’ producing a moral economy of indebtedness, high educational expectations, and aspirations for children to assimilate into British society. However, these maternal narratives often clash with children’s own experiences of linguistic adjustment, identity negotiation, and educational aspirations. Migration, therefore, emerges as a carefully managed family strategy, entailing both material and emotional costs, as well as contested visions between parents and children. Despite these challenges, mothers remain optimistic, viewing education as a key pathway to imagined futures and upward mobility.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Narratives of sacrifice and aspiration: Turkish middle-class families and educational migration to London |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1080/01434632.2025.2581861 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2025.2581861 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. |
| Keywords: | Narrative analysis, language and identity, educational migration, aspiration, sacrifice |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10216593 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
