This is compared with both the wider populations of the destination countries and those who returned to their country of origin (returnees) or who never left (stayers).

The research shows that 84% of migrants who returned to their origin country were rent or mortgage free compared with just 48% of those who continued to live in the destination country.

These findings are drawn from the pioneering 2000 Families Survey which conducted personal interviews with 5980 individuals nested within 1770 families who originated from Turkey.

The survey located men who moved from Turkey to Europe as guestworkers and their comparators who stayed behind, and traced their families across Turkey and Europe up to the fourth generation.

The results show that 79% of the returnees, 56% of the stayers and 50% of the settlers own a house (with or without a mortgage) where they currently live.

And while 48% of settlers have no mortgage or rent on their property, this applies to more than four fifths of the returnees at 84%, and more than two thirds of the stayers at 69%.

Lead author Dr Sebnem Eroglu, from the School for Policy Studies, said: “Under the guest-worker agreements, labourers (typically men) from Turkey, and other Balkan and Southern European countries, were invited to contribute to the building of Northern and Western Europe."

“Despite their significant contributions to their economies and societies, the guest-workers and their descendants settled in Europe often find themselves disadvantaged against the destination country populations as well as their stayer and returnee counterparts.”