State of Research on German Retirement Migration to Turkiye: A Qualitative Systematic Review

Abstract

Background: The Alanya region on Turkey’s southern coast has become an important destination for German retirement migration. Objective: Identify research studies on German retirement migration to Turkey which deal with the life situation, the motives, the handling of critical life situations in the context of retirement migration, and the reasons for return migration. Methods: The researcher conducted a qualitative systematic literature review from January 2021 to May 2021 in MEDLINE, CINAHL Complete, and APA PsychInfo. Results: Eleven studies on German and European retirement migration to Turkey were included after a critical assessment based on defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Motives for retirement migration are climatic, scenic, cultural advantages and the lower cost of living in Turkey. Conclusion: It has been found that most of the studies are thematically narrowly defined, detailed studies deal with and describe the development of retirement migration in a more general way.