The Turkish Diaspora in Europe: History and Numbers for Germany, the Netherlands, France and the UK

What is the Turkish diaspora in Europe?

The Turkish diaspora in Europe is the community of people who moved from Turkey to European countries, together with their children and grandchildren born there. It is not one group with one story. It includes people who arrived as workers, people who came to join family, students, professionals and many who were born in Germany, the Netherlands, France or the UK and have never lived anywhere else.

That is why the word needs some care. A person can be a citizen of their European country, hold a Turkish passport as well, or hold only one of the two. Some describe themselves as Turkish, some as German Turkish or British Turkish, some simply by the town their grandparents came from. Official statistics use their own definitions, and we will point out which one each number uses, because they cannot be added together.

How did the Turkish diaspora in Europe begin?

The best-known starting point is Germany. The Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) describes how West Germany signed an agreement with Turkey in 1961 to recruit workers, and how a recruitment stop for workers from outside the European Community followed in November 1973. What was planned as temporary labour migration turned into permanent settlement, and after the stop, joining family members became an ever more important route into the country.

The Netherlands followed a few years later. The Canon van Nederland, the national history canon of the Netherlands, says that after a recruitment agreement with Turkey in 1964, Turkish workers followed the earlier Italian, Spanish, Greek and Yugoslav workers, and that they were called gastarbeiders (guest workers) because their stay was expected to be temporary.

That expectation is the heart of the story. People planned to earn, save and go home, and many families lived for years with a suitcase half packed. Then children started school, jobs became permanent and the home country kept changing while they were away. We touch on that in-between feeling in Turkish and European identity.

How many people of Turkish origin live in Germany?

Germany has the largest community. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports, in first results of the 2025 microcensus, about 3.08 million people in private households with a migration background in the broader sense whose country of birth, or that of their parents, is Turkey. Of them, about 1.47 million have their own migration experience, meaning they were born abroad.

The difference between those two figures is the diaspora story in one line. Just over half of this group did not move at all. They were born in Germany, to at least one parent who did. Destatis counts people in private main-residence households, so the figure does not capture everyone, and the data were published as first results (status 13 April 2026, checked October 2026).

How many people of Turkish origin live in the Netherlands?

Statistics Netherlands (CBS) publishes the population by country of origin. On 1 January 2025 468,726 people in the Netherlands had Turkey as their country of origin. Of them, 234,277 were born in the Netherlands and 234,449 were born abroad, so the two halves are almost equal.

CBS assigns country of origin from the birth country of the person or of their parents. At the end of 2025 the same table shows 479,880 people. Both figures come from CBS table 85369NED (checked October 2026).

How many people of Turkish origin live in France and the UK?

France and the UK are measured differently, and that matters. The French statistics office INSEE counts immigrants, meaning people born abroad who live in France. In 2025 it estimates about 8.0 million immigrants, and Turkey is the country of birth of 3.5 percent of them. That is provisional data, and it does not include people born in France to Turkish parents.

For the UK, the Office for National Statistics reports from the 2021 census that 127,644 usual residents of England and Wales were born in Turkey, 124,758 in England and 2,886 in Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland are counted separately, and people born in the UK, including many British Turks, are not in this figure, nor are Turkish Cypriots born in Cyprus. It is therefore a floor, not the size of the community.

Why are these numbers hard to compare?

Each country asks a different question. Here is what each figure actually measures.

The German and Dutch figures include later generations, while the French and British ones count only the people who were born in Turkey. Put side by side, the first pair looks much larger, but that is largely a matter of definition. Anyone who quotes one total for the whole of Europe is adding unlike things, and we have chosen not to.

What does the diaspora look like in daily life?

Numbers say where people live, not how they live. In many European cities the diaspora is visible in small ways: a bakery that opens early, a tea garden, a barber, a wedding hall booked a year ahead, a mosque or a cultural association that doubles as a community centre. Families keep ties with a hometown, which is why memleket, the place your family comes from, still matters to many people born far from it, as we explain in memleket and hometown matching.

Calendar traditions travel too. Bayram visits, shared tables and long phone calls home continue in a new setting, with their own adjustments, as described in bayram traditions in the diaspora. And every summer many families make the long journey to the hometown, the subject of sila yolu, the summer drive home.

Practice varies widely. Some families speak Turkish at home, others a mix with the local language, and some young people are learning it as adults. None of this makes anyone more or less Turkish.

How does the diaspora shape dating and relationships?

For many people in the diaspora, dating involves a balance. You may want a partner who understands your family's customs without explanation, from how guests are welcomed, as in Turkish hospitality, to why parents ask where someone's family is from. You may also want a relationship that feels like your own, shaped by the country you grew up in.

Lokum was built with that balance in mind. People can set their intent and their memleket on their profile, and a conversation only opens when two people like each other. A short live selfie check lets members earn a verification badge. If you would rather browse first, see our page to meet Turkish singles.

Where can you read official data and history yourself?

The original sources are worth a look. Destatis publishes the population by migration background and birth country, CBS runs an open data portal with the table named above, INSEE has a page called L'essentiel sur les immigrés et les étrangers, and the ONS publishes census 2021 tables by country of birth, which can also be browsed through Nomis. Figures are updated regularly, so check the date on each table.