Narrative Identities of International Women Living in Turkey

Authors

  • Özlem AYDOGMUS ORDEM
  • Seyfi OZGUZEL

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7460936

Keywords:

Life Story, Women, Immigrants, Narrative Identity, Phenomenography

Abstract

Studies on narrative identity have been on the rise in recent decades. This study aims to analyze the narrative identities of international women living in Turkey. This study is qualitative and descriptive in nature based on a phenomenographic design within the interpretivist paradigm. This study involved five international women from different cultures that lived in Turkey for different periods of time. The results of the study show that the narrative identities of the participants were influenced by the aspects of the collectivist target culture. While hospitality, friendship, sincerity and social settings had a positive impact on their identity as women, motherhood, the dominance of a collectivist culture, the absence of an aesthetic urban design, the domination of manhood and the judgment of the people were questioned. In addition, the participants interpreted that the women in Turkey were expected to be confined to their homes, household chores and dealing with the guests such as neighbors, relatives and friends. The international women reported to have been largely disturbed by the violation of privacy. Temporality was also found to be another factor that affected their orientation and adaptation process into the target culture. However, in general, the participants reported that living in the Turkish culture had a favorable effect on their identity.

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Published

2022-12-20

How to Cite

AYDOGMUS ORDEM , Özlem . ., & OZGUZEL , S. (2022). Narrative Identities of International Women Living in Turkey. WORLD WOMEN STUDIES JOURNAL, 7(1), 113–122. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7460936

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Articles