Breaking Barriers via Refugees: Cultural Transmission and Women's Economic Empowerment

Breaking Barriers via Refugees: Cultural Transmission and Women's Economic Empowerment | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Breaking Barriers via Refugees: Cultural Transmission and Women's Economic Empowerment Mevlude Akbulut, Abdurrahman B. Aydemir, Murat Güray Kırdar, Belgi Turan This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7929295/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This paper provides causal evidence on the horizontal transmission of gender norms and their long-term effects on women’s socioeconomic outcomes. We exploit the forced migration of ethnic Turks from Bulgaria to Türkiye after the fall of the Iron Curtain as a natural experiment. Although they shared a common language and religion, ethnic Turkish women from Bulgaria held more progressive gender norms and stronger labor market attachment than native Turkish women. We examine whether their arrival influenced native women’s labor force participation, sector of employment, educational attainment, and fertility over the following decade. Our identification strategy combines a difference-indifferences framework with an instrumental variable approach, using the settlement patterns of earlier refugee waves allocated by the Turkish government through state-led housing and land programs. We find that exposure to refugee women increased native women’s labor force participation , particularly in male-dominated manufacturing sectors where refugee women concentrated, with no corresponding changes among native men. Fertility among native women declined, while middle school completion among native girls rose, bringing their outcomes closer to those of refugee women. These results demonstrate that exposure to progressive gender norms can spur cultural change, reshaping women’s roles both at home and in the workplace. The findings underscore how sustained interaction with migrant groups can shift gender norms and behaviors, even in socially conservative settings with initially low female labor force participation. JEL: J16, J15, J13, N45 horizontal transmission social learning culture migration Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7929295","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":540595434,"identity":"5fd91395-8b22-4f9e-a911-58558aecb242","order_by":0,"name":"Mevlude Akbulut","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Dalhousie University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mevlude","middleName":"","lastName":"Akbulut","suffix":""},{"id":540595436,"identity":"a7656402-3a23-404d-b6c0-b5d48f3a12a1","order_by":1,"name":"Abdurrahman B. 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