Migration and Conceptualization: Love and Family among Turkish Residents in Hungary and Türkiye

Abstract

This study examines the conceptual categories of love and family among Turkish residents in Türkiye and Turkish migrants in Hungary in order to explore how migration shapes core cultural concepts. Using a free-listing task with 219 participants, the research identifies both shared cultural foundations and context-specific variations. Contrary to earlier literature that often emphasizes negative or conflictual aspects in Turkish conceptualizations, both groups primarily described love and family in positive terms. Nevertheless, notable differences emerged in the salience of traditional and collectivist elements. These findings indicate that conceptual categories are flexible and responsive to new social and cultural environments, supporting the view of culture as dynamic rather than fixed. The study concludes that migration functions not only as a social and political phenomenon but also as a cognitive process that reorganizes central human concepts.