Measurement of Social Stratification and Mobility in Turkey Through Occupations

In Turkey, the number of quantitative studies on social stratification has been low for years. This is mostly due to a lack of available data. In this paper, it is aimed to investigate the status of social stratification in Turkey, the effects on occupational status and the change in social mobility through the analysis of secondary data. To this end, datasets from International Social Survey Programme dated 2009, TURKSTAT Household Labor Force Research dated 2010 and TURKSTAT Adult Education Research dated 2012 have been analysed despite their shortcomings. Occupational status scores and social stratification positions of the respondents in these surveys have been calculated according to EGP, ISEI and CAMSIS indexes which are based on distinct conceptualizations. Ordinary least squares and multinomial logistic regression models show that parental occupational status, educational level of the respondent and parental educational level have all significant effects on respondents' occupational status across all indexes and datasets. Moreover, multilevel models show that the effect of parental occupational status on respondents' occupational status is lower among younger cohorts. These results are in line with the international literature. Despite the implications towards an increase in upward mobility, in order to have more clear inferences further research should be designed to capture social mobility through direct measures of educational and occupational statuses of respondents and their parents.