Integration, assimilation or separation? The implications for marketers of the Turkish Muslim consumers in The Netherlands

This paper aims to assess recent acculturation theory regarding the existence of two co-existent characteristics, the public and private. This has been focussed on the ethnic Turkish community in The Netherlands.

Considering more than 200 second- and third-generation citizens, the underlying structure of this acculturation using an established two-dimensional public/private metric has been identified using exploratory factor analysis. An assessment has been made of generational differences, alongside associations with the respective assessment of host and ethnic identity.

The findings in the paper suggest that the Turkish acculturation within The Netherlands is based on “Turkish socialisation”, “Islamic faith/religion”, “Dutch socialisation” and “Dutch assimilation”. The “socialisation” constructs capture both public and private experiences, suggesting acculturation is more one-dimensional. Furthermore, these constructs display the greater associations with their respective identity measures, and this ethnic identity is increasing rather than diminishing by generation.

As emerging ethnic markets continue to become more mainstream in Western Europe, their marketing importance also grows. Muslim immigrants are a growing interest of marketers, as they grow in size and purchasing power, and marketers use sub-cultural segmentation and targeted marketing to reach these consumers.