Abstract Background This study aims to identify the relationships between health behaviours, self-management abilities, physical health, depressive symptoms and well-being among Turkish older immigrants. Methods A total of 2350 older Turkish migrants aged > 65 years residing in Rotterdam, the Netherlands were identified using the municipal register of which 680 respondents completed the questionnaires (response rate of 32%). Results Average age of the respondents was 72.90 (standard deviation 5.02) (range 66–95) years and about half of them were women (47.6%). The majority of respondents reported having a low education (80.3%), low income level (83.4%), is chronically ill (90.6%), overweight (86.5%) and about half obese (46.0%). More than half of the respondents eat enough fruit (58.2%) and vegetables per week (55.3%). About a third of the respondents smoke (33.5%) and 43.0% can be considered to be physically active. Looking at the health behaviours a weak p