Meltem Yilmaz Sener - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Meltem Yilmaz Sener

Problemy Polityki Społecznej, Dec 3, 2023

International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 2024

Based on 71 semi-structured, in-depth interviews conducted with Turkey-originated migrants who li... more Based on 71 semi-structured, in-depth interviews conducted with Turkey-originated migrants who live in Norway, this article discusses whether and what kinds of differences Turkish migrants in Norway perceive in the notions of privacy and intimacy between the Turkish and Norwegian contexts, and the implications of this perceived difference for their social interactions in Norway. While many of them value the social recognition of the right to privacy in Norway, they also think that avoidance of asking personal questions creates barriers in establishing close relationships and intimacy. For them, this contrasts with Turkey, where even strangers can easily ask personal questions or make comments that violate others’ privacy, but where people can easily establish warm, close, and deeper relationships. While they think that Norwegians are generally distant and reserved in interpersonal relationships, they find them more distant in their relationships with non-Norwegians. They think that the suspicion towards and fear of foreigners goes together with Norwegian people’s preference to interact with people who are very similar to them. Based on the experiences and comparisons of these migrants who have lived in (at least) two country contexts, this article discusses the relationship between privacy and intimacy as one where the expansion of the former weakens the latter. Considering privacy as a process of boundary regulation where individuals control how much contact they will maintain with others, culturally induced differences in expectations about where to draw that boundary creates barriers in communication between individuals who were socialized in different country contexts.

Welfare States in a Turbulent Era

Tidsskrift for Islamforskning

This paper describes the process of religification through which assumed religious affiliation, r... more This paper describes the process of religification through which assumed religious affiliation, rather than other identifications, becomes the main category of identity that Norwegian society uses to identify Turkish women living in Norway. Depending on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 41 first-generation Turkish women migrants living in Drammen and Oslo, the paper first demonstrates the variety in religious belief, identification, and adherence to religious practices among them. Secondly, it shows how their daily encounters in Norwegian society are largely shaped by the fact that Turkish womenv are primarily assumed to be religious Muslims. Many of these women feel uncomfortable being exposed to questions about religion yet, ironically, in a sense, they feel that they are being called to be more religious Muslims in the context of Norway. When they seem to diverge from the stereotype, they are told that they are not like Turks/other Turks. However, although all these women...

Border Crossing

This study focuses on the discrimination perceptions of Turkish skilled migrants living in Norway... more This study focuses on the discrimination perceptions of Turkish skilled migrants living in Norway. Based on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 44 skilled migrants from Turkey, the paper discusses their perceptions of the following: i) prejudices against their ethnic group, ii) discrimination against themselves and other people from Turkey, and iii) the implications of prejudices and discrimination for how migrants from the same country perceive each other. Looking at the case of Turkish migrants in Norway, the paper argues that the prejudices against a certain migrant group lead to more polarization between different groups of migrants coming from the same country. When all the members of one ethnic group are marked and stereotyped, those who have enough capital (economic, social, cultural) use discursive and material strategies to distance themselves from an imagined migrant (of their ethnic origin) who is stereotyped.

DergiPark (Istanbul University), Jun 15, 2016

Routledge International Handbook of Poverty, 2019

Dutch Crossing: Journal of Low Countries Studies, 2018

When we consider the international migration history of Turkey, we see the key position of the im... more When we consider the international migration history of Turkey, we see the key position of the immigration of worker migrants to Germany that has been going on since the 1960s. Due to the waves of migration from Turkey to Europe, and especially to Germany, Turks now form one of the largest minority groups living in Western Europe who have migrated from outside of the European Union (EU) region (Sirkeci 2002: 9). As a consequence, beginning from the first period of migration, Turkish migration to Germany has been a subject that social scientists have intensively analyzed. However, most studies have focused on guest workers and there have been a limited number of studies looking at the case of qualified migrants from Turkey to Germany. Academic interest is limited not only to the migration of the qualified migrants to Germany but also in return migration. To date, there are only a few studies on return migration and they mostly try to understand under what conditions and situations gu...

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, May 16, 2023

The Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Problems

This article aims to discuss the implications of right-wing populism for gender relations and wom... more This article aims to discuss the implications of right-wing populism for gender relations and women's rights by summarizing the debates on the common gender aspects of current populist discourses in different countries, and by demonstrating the populist elements in contemporary Turkey, especially in the discourses of its populist President Tayyip Erdoğan. The chapter first summarizes the contemporary debates on populism, by pointing out its main distinguishing aspects according to scholars who write on populism. Next, there is a discussion on what right-wing populist discourses suggest in terms of gender, women's position in society, and family. By focusing on the case of Turkey, the article demonstrates the trajectory of populism in the country and its recent rise during the period of AKP (Justice and Development Party/Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi) governments, and discusses the gendered impacts of right-wing populism in Turkey, especially during the period of AKP governments. Finally, there is an analysis of three of President Erdoğan's speeches on women's rights, with a reflection on how his populist discourses position women. The article concludes with a discussion of

Research and Policy on Turkey, Jul 2, 2016

This paper looks at the gender aspect of social policy provision in Turkey during the Justice and... more This paper looks at the gender aspect of social policy provision in Turkey during the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi-AKP) government period through an emphasis on the ways in which women are positioned within the anti-poverty programmes. It focuses on conditional cash transfers (CCTs), as the leading and most emphasized poverty alleviation programme of the AKP government. The paper subjects the CCTs in general and the Turkish CCT programme in particular to a gender analysis. It demonstrates how CCTs are representative of the AKP’s social conservative and neo-liberal approach to social policy especially with regard to the roles that are assigned to women. It argues that the double-sidedness in AKP’s policies in terms of gender equality is observed in the case of the CCTs. Although at the discursive level, there is an emphasis on empowerment of women by this programme, the ways in which the programme is structured leads to the reinforcement of women’s domestic roles.

Beginning from 1970s, significant transformations have taken place both in the developed countrie... more Beginning from 1970s, significant transformations have taken place both in the developed countries of the West and the underdeveloped countries. With the change in the global economic conditions through the oil crisis, transnationalization of capital, increasing global competition, etc., the neoliberal ideology, which had been advocated

A university is an institution that has been extensively restructured according to the market log... more A university is an institution that has been extensively restructured according to the market logic with the process of neoliberal globalization. As the resources for doing research are limited especially in the developing countries, the funds pro-vided for research by institutions such as the World Bank gain importance for the academics. This article demonstrates how the academics ’ experience of producing knowledge for the World Bank fosters the neoliberalization of the university in Turkey. Depending on interviews with academics, the article looks at the impacts of doing research for the World Bank. It concludes that although these academics are forced to act as entrepreneurial subjects, they have not necessarily internalized this neoliberal mentality.

In the 2000/2001 World Development Report, the World Bank offered a new approach named ‘social ri... more In the 2000/2001 World Development Report, the World Bank offered a new approach named ‘social risk management ’ for poverty reduction. The World Bank documents present the aim of social risk management as to provide instruments to the poor and the vulnerable to decrease the impact of being exposed to risk. The empirical focus of this project is the Social Risk Mitigation Project (SRMP) in Turkey, which is a World Bank project that depends on the social risk management framework. Through in-depth interviews, participant observation, and document analysis, this study considers the World Bank’s implementation of the ‘Social Risk Mitigation Project ’ by locating it at the intersection of the broad bodies of literature on development, globalization, risk, neoliberalism, and neoliberal governmentality. Here, by doing an ethnographic study, I explain what kind of activities the World Bank executes under a social risk management project, how different actors (World Bank consultants, state ...

Development has, for a long time, been a major issue in the programs of key political actors such... more Development has, for a long time, been a major issue in the programs of key political actors such as governments, international institutions (IMF, World Bank, UN) and NGOs. Among these actors, especially the World Bank has emerged as a major authority, ‘a chief arbiter’ due to the development projects it applies all over the world and due to its position as a ‘global knowledge bank’, a source of ideas in the area of development (Goldman, 2005). From its establishment in 1944 during a conference in Bretton Woods, and with the participation of 44 government representatives, the World Bank has been active for more than sixty years as one of the world’s largest sources of loans – especially for the Third World countries.

Guide to Mobile Data Analytics in Refugee Scenarios, 2019

DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of t... more DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers. Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal. If the publication is distributed under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the "Taverne" license above, please follow below link for the End User Agreement:

Women, Migration and Asylum in Turkey is a collection of articles written by Turkish researchers ... more Women, Migration and Asylum in Turkey is a collection of articles written by Turkish researchers on women and gendered migration in Turkey. The volume is important not only because it has brought together the writings of many experts on women's migration in Turkey, but also because it makes an important contribution to the international literature on women's experiences of migration. As stated in the first chapter written by the editors, the idea for this collection grew out of a panel titled 'Gender and Migration in Turkey' at the Turkish Migration Conference in Athens in 2017. The contributors later came together at a workshop in 2018, and the book emerged as the outcome of their collaboration. As Williams and Coşkun state, 'this is a book about women', thus it does not seek to cover 'the full effect of gender and gendered norms on migration experience and patterns' (236). There are no articles, for instance, on the impacts of gendered norms on men's experiences of migration. The volume has been organized in three major parts. The first part includes one vignette and three articles, which are successful in setting the stage for the rest of the book. In addition to providing an overview of the book and providing the main theoretical frameworks, the introductory chapter gives background information about the history of migration to and from Turkey, women's roles in these migration flows, and Turkey's current asylum regime. The articles in the first part give additional contextual information by discussing the use of 'women' and 'gender' in migration studies in general, as well as the main paths of migration research in Turkey, which have a women/gender perspective (Kaşka, chapter 2); the forms of precarity that emerge from the intersection of gender and migration; and the distinct forms of precarity in the Turkish case (Şenses, chapter 3); and finally, the changes in the welfare regimes both in Europe and in Turkey and the impacts of these changes on migrant women (Toksöz, chapter 4). In the second part, there are three vignettes and three articles. Although the title of the second part is 'Policy on gendered migration in Turkey', the first two articles in this part are less

International Journal of Migration and Border Studies