TY  - JOUR
A1  - Özer, Aydan
A1  - Scheffler, Christiane
T1  - Affinity to host population stimulates physical growth in adult offspring of Turkish migrants in Germany
T2  - Journal of biological and clinical anthropology
T2  - Anthropologischer Anzeiger ; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft für Anthropologie
N2  - Because of political conflicts and climate change, migration will be increased worldwide and integration in host societies is a challenge also for migrants. We hypothesize that migrants, who take up the challenge in a new social environment are taller than migrants who do not pose this challenge. We analyze by a questionnaire possible social, nutritional and ethnic influencing factors to body height (BH) of adult offspring of Turkish migrants (n = 82, 39 males) aged from 18 to 34 years (mean age 24.6 years). The results of multiple regression (downward selection) show that the more a male adult offspring of Turkish migrants feels like belonging to the Turkish culture, the smaller he is (95% CI, -3.79, -0.323). Further, the more a male adult offspring of Turkish migrants feels like belonging to the German culture, the taller he is (95% CI, -0.152, 1.738). We discussed it comparable to primates taking up their challenge in dominance, where as a result their body size increase is associated with higher IGF-1 level. IGF-1 is associated with emotional belonging and has a fundamental role in the regulation of metabolism and growth of the human body. With all pilot characteristics of our study results show that the successful challenge of integration in a new society is strongly associated with the emotional integration and identification in the sense of a personal sense of belonging to society. We discuss taller BH as a signal of social growth adjustment. In this sense, a secular trend of BH adaptation of migrants to hosts is a sign of integration.
KW  - height of Turkish migrants
KW  - social identification
KW  - strategic growth adjustments
Y1  - 2018
UR  - https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/54440
SN  - 0003-5548
VL  - 74
IS  - 5
SP  - 359
EP  - 364
PB  - Schweizerbart
CY  - Stuttgart
ER  -