Turkey Country Profile - How will we address the GAPs?

by: Susan Beth Rottmann, Özyeğin University | Meltem Akoglu, Koç University

Turkey is a critical country for the study of return migration for several reasons: 

  • First, it is a source, transit, and destination country on the borders of Europe with high numbers of migrants from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and other countries (4.7+ million registered foreign nationals); it is also home to significant numbers of irregular migrants (estimates range from 200,000-one million). 

  • Turkey has witnessed increasing anti-immigrant sentiment and political polarization in recent years making it an important case study for exploring migration governance and the political rhetoric of return (e.g. ideas of voluntary/forced, burden of refugee hosting, criminality and deportation assistance). Elections in May 2023 saw political parties across the left-right spectrum use the “refugee return issue” for political gains. 

  • For the European Union, Turkey is a critical migration governance partner. The EU provides technical and financial assistance to combat irregular migration, smuggling, and border crossing and provides institutional support and capacity building on the migration issue in the country. The sometimes constructive/sometimes tense EU-Turkey relationship surrounding return and onward migration necessitates more research on the enablers and barriers of international cooperation between Turkey and the EU as well as between Turkey and origin countries of migrants like Afghanistan. 

  • Finally, Turkey is currently home to the largest number of Syrian asylum seekers in the world (3.6 million), yet research with migrants in Turkey has rarely focused on their agency or on how changing perceptions over time and daily experiences impact the limited choices they confront in an increasingly unstable political and social context.

 

Irregular Migrants Who Have Been Captured  By Nationalities Chart.
Source: DGMM statistics. https://en.goc.gov.tr/irregular-migration (last accessed 21 June 2023). Created by Meltem Akoglu.

GAPs will formulate more effective and holistic approaches to international cooperation with countries like Turkey, with the ultimate goal of ensuring the protection of migrants' rights, addressing the root causes of migration, and fostering sustainable development.

Critical issues for GAPs with regard to the study of return migration in relation to Turkey are as follows:

First Ten Nationalities’ Application For International Protection. Source: DGMM statistics. https://en.goc.gov.tr/international-protection17 (last accessed 19 June 2023). Created by Meltem Akoglu

  1. The Migration and Return Landscape: Turkey plays a significant role in the migration dynamics between origin and third countries and the EU. As a transit and host country for migrants, Turkey's cooperation is crucial for managing migration flows and addressing the challenges associated with irregular migration. It is also important to study the specific dynamics of South-South returns and their connection with EU policies to gain a deeper understanding of the drivers influencing return and to identify potential areas of improvement.

  2. Political Cooperation at Migrants’ Expense: The 2016 statement between Turkey and the EU as well as other measures significantly exacerbated the challenges faced by migrants in Turkey seeking to establish new lives in Europe. The process of crossing into the EU by land or sea has become exceedingly difficult and dangerous. Consequently, a large number of individuals find themselves in a never-ending and desperate wait at the border. For those who choose to establish new lives in Turkey, the situation is far from stable. The Turkish government has implemented various policies to address the needs of large numbers of Syrian refugees, including the establishment of refugee camps, providing access to healthcare and education, granting temporary protection status and work permit rights. Yet, a struggling economy with high inflation, a housing crisis in Istanbul, a disastrous earthquake in the Southeast, and heated political debates about the country’s future add to migrants’ feelings of insecurity. The GAPs project recognizes that while governance and cooperation frameworks play a significant role in shaping migration policies and practices, the agency and autonomy of migrants cannot be underestimated if we want to understand what happens on the ground and why policies fail or succeed. We will explore the experiences of migrants in Turkey to highlight the dynamic and multifaceted nature of migration and how migrants actively shape their own paths and decisions.

  3. Proposing Alternatives: It is important to explore alternative pathways and models for existing return policies, practices, and cooperation in Turkey and between Turkey and the EU. GAPs will contribute to the development of new legal frameworks and policies, effective mechanisms for monitoring return operations, and convergence between the EU and Turkey. An important means of achieving these goals is via the creation of stakeholder expert panels, consisting of policymakers and officials, practitioners working in the implementation of policies, representatives from international actors (i.e. IOM UNHCR, UNDP, ICMPD,), and civil society, and NGOs working in this field. These panels will reflect upon and contribute to the project’s findings, thereby bridging policy and science.

The GAPs team studying Turkey brings vast experience to this topic - we have two partners based in Turkey (Özyeğin University and the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul) and our project coordinator (Zeynep Şahin Mencütek) is an expert on Turkey’s return governance. 

Check out some of our publications on return migration to learn more about our approaches and perspectives: 


Contact:

Susan Beth Rottmann | Özyeğin University | susan.rottmann@ozyegin.edu.tr

Meltem Akoglu | Koç University | makoglu18@ku.edu.tr

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Story of One Returnee

From March 8-10, 2023, the “GAPs: Decentring the Study of Migrant Returns and Readmission Policies in Europe and Beyond” project consortium met in person at the University of Uppsala in Sweden to kick off an ambitious three year Horizon Europe research project that aims to better understand the complexities of return migration and examine the disconnects between policy expectations and their actual outcomes.

In addition to meetings on individual work packages, project objectives and management, dissemination, and ethics and data management, the meeting was enriched by several content-based events. One of these events was a film screening and discussion on the potential and challenges of digital storytelling for shifting migration narratives and informing research-based policy together with academics and migrants.

The screening event was led by our partner organization, Migration Matters. The second cluster focused on documentary storytelling from the international project Migrant Lives in Pandemic Times, featuring the stories of a diverse range of migrants around the world and how their lives were impacted by the pandemic in terms of work, family, mental and physical health, and community. This cluster included the story of one returnee[1]  from the UAE to Kerala, India. The screened videos represented a mix of in-person productions and remote productions during Covid and were produced for diverse target groups, ranging from youth and university-level students to policy makers.

story of one returnee from the UAE to Kerala, India. Migration Matters Screening / GAPs Kick-off meeting

TurkeyInside GAPsOzyegin University