Affinity to host population stimulates physical growth in adult offspring of Turkish migrants in Germany
- 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 associatedBecause 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.…
Author details: | Aydan Özer, Christiane SchefflerORCiDGND |
---|---|
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1127/anthranz/2018/0825 |
ISSN: | 0003-5548 |
Pubmed ID: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29349478 |
Title of parent work (English): | Journal of biological and clinical anthropology |
Title of parent work (German): | Anthropologischer Anzeiger ; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft für Anthropologie |
Publisher: | Schweizerbart |
Place of publishing: | Stuttgart |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of first publication: | 2018/06/01 |
Publication year: | 2018 |
Release date: | 2022/03/23 |
Tag: | height of Turkish migrants; social identification; strategic growth adjustments |
Volume: | 74 |
Issue: | 5 |
Number of pages: | 6 |
First page: | 359 |
Last Page: | 364 |
Funding institution: | Auxological Society (Gesellschaft fur Auxologie); Society of Anthropology (Gesellschaft fur Anthropologic); Lilly Deutschland GmbH |
Organizational units: | Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Biochemie und Biologie |
DDC classification: | 5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 57 Biowissenschaften; Biologie / 570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie |
Peer review: | Referiert |
License (German): | CC-BY-NC - Namensnennung, nicht kommerziell 4.0 International |