More than 50% of young Turkish Cypriots want to migrate – research

Many young Turkish Cypriots wish to migrate, citing financial difficulties, mandatory army conscription and anxiety about the future as reasons, a study showed.

The research facilitated by the E.U.-funded Grow Civic programme found that 57.3% of young Turkish Cypriots aged 18-30, out of a sample size of 302 persons, would like to migrate.

According to the Turkish Cypriot newspaper Halkin Sesi, the study investigates issues facing young people in the north such as mental health, socioeconomic and political circumstances, trust in institutions and migration tendencies.

Of the 302 participants in the study, 51.8% said that financial difficulties are causing them to think about migrating, while 38.6% and 6.6% cited anxiety about the future and mandatory army conscription, respectively, as factors.

Furthermore, according to the study, 44% of participants said they fear they will fail in the future, 45.% said they fear that their labour conditions will get worse and 42.1% said they fear they won’t be able to overcome future challenges.

It was reported that 62.90% of the participants stated that they were afraid that economic and political changes would threaten their future, while 55.30 percent stated that they felt helpless due to economic conditions.

However, when asked if the state was run on democratic, free and merit-based lines, would they consider staying even if the economic conditions were worse, the overall response was that they were likely to remain in the country.