==TURKEY==

Until 1985, more than half of the population in Turkey was living in rural areas. After this year, urban centers became densely populated not because of high birth rates in cities, but because of massive migration from rural areas. In rural parts of Turkey, many people saw migration as the only solution to their problems and began to migrate to big cities. Whatever the reasons for this migration are, it is evident that it deeply affected the traditional rural family structure in two important ways.
One of the effects was in status of women in the family. In traditional perspective, women were considered as childbearers, childbearers, and housekeepers. They were restricted to the household and generally excluded from all spheres of public life. Men had the right to make decisions in any kind of situation regardless of their wives' ideas.
This patriarchal structure was in some regions so severe that women were seen as inferior to men even in intelligence. For example, this belief of man's superiority found expression in idioms such as "They (women) have long hair but limited intelligence" or "Do not interfere with men's affairs." Also in rural communities, the official marriage ceremony was not important. Men could be married with more than one spouse at the same time if they had religious approval called "imam nikahi". This situation undoubtedly brought a rivalry between the first spouse of the man and other, later-comers called "kuma". The quantity of spouses lowered women's status in the family.
After migration to urban centers, we see that the status of women rose. They began to take an active role in supporting their families economically. Of course, if they had stayed in rural areas, they would never have gotten the right to work outside the home. What made this possible was economical hardships the family encountered in the city. Men were not able to support their families alone. Therefore, they had to permit their wives to work for the family, although many of them thought that working women were immoral.
We can say that women enjoyed the power brought by their salaries. They became more assertive in family affairs and opposed living with "kuma" by demanding the official marriage ceremony from their husbands. Some of them even went one step further and divorced their husbands. This phenomenon was unimaginable for them when they were in rural areas.
A second effect of internal migration was in the structure of the family. In rural areas, families included a wide range of relatives. All of the relatives were living in the same house. So, there was not a private life for husband, wife, and children. The head of the family was the grandfather, and he had the power to get his sons to do whatever he ordered. Sons had to obey their fathers unhesitatingly. Similarly, grandmothers influenced their daughter in-laws. The relationship between grandmothers and their daughter in-laws was often tense. This tension was even expressed in some songs and idioms on each side. For example, in one song popular among daughter-in-laws, it was wished to put grandmothers into a large kettle and boil them in hot water.
Migration to cities changed this extended family structure and its members' relationships. After migration, the family did not include all relatives, but only the husband, wife, and children. Family life became more private and less interrelated with other relatives. Also, after this transition to the nuclear family, grandfathers and grandmothers lost the authority over family members. Now every husband and wife have the authority in his or her own home.
In conclusion, internal migration in Turkey brought major changes to the rural family structure. Women were the ones who especially benefited from its results. They won some rights to join public life and to make decisions in family affairs. They were not under tight control of their husbands and mother-in-laws anymore. In Turkey through migration, the rural extended family was transformed to the urban nuclear family. It was this transformation that allowed the rural family structure to become more liberal and urbanized.