Turkey -Country Report Working Papers Global Migration: Consequences and Responses Legal & Policy Framework of Migration Governance (original) (raw)
Related papers
Turkey – Country Report: Legal and Policy Framework of Migration Governance
Respond Working Paper series, 2018
This country report focuses on developments that took place during the period of 2011-2017 in the field of migration in Turkey. Traditionally a country of emigration, starting from the early 1990s, it has also become an important country of immigration, asylum and transit. Most recently, the increasing pressure of the refugee challenge, particularly given the high number of arrivals from Syria, has put the country once again under international spotlights. This report provides relevant migration statistics that are available as open source data. It briefly reviews the socio-economic, political and cultural characteristic of the country as well as its brief migration history. The report also delves into a detailed analysis of the constitutional, legal and institutional framework of Turkey’s national migration management system, which has gone through significant transition in the last few years. The report points out that due to Turkey’s geographical limitation to the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951 Convention), and its associated 1967 Protocol; Turkey does not grant refugee status to people fleeing from conflicts and persecution in non-European countries. But it does provide ‘conditional refugee status’ along with ‘refugee’ and ‘subsidiary’ protection. The report reveals a key duality regarding European and non-European asylum seekers to be an important characteristic of Turkey’s asylum system. The first group can obtain ‘refugee’ status’; while the second group can only obtain ‘conditional refugee status’. However, regardless of their nationality, due to the Syrian mass migration, Syrian refugees1 are given another international protection status, which is called ‘temporary protection’. The report concludes by highlighting that part of Turkey’s recent migration policy efforts are tied to encouragement coming from the EU for Turkey to improve conditions regarding access to the asylum process and status determination as well as enhancement of its facilities forasylum-seekers’ protection. Although these developments bring Turkey closer to satisfying the EU demands on migration and asylum policy, Turkey is still expected to abolish the geographical limitation of the 1951 Convention to create a full-fledged asylum system and to solve remaining implementation problems. Ensuring equal and fair access to asylum procedures and facilitating the full access of asylum-seekers to legal aid remain priorities still to be achieved.
INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION AND REFUGEES IN THE 21ST CENTURY A PERSPECTIVE OF TURKEY
2020
In addition to the Syrian Civil War, millions of people who are struggling with poverty, hunger, economic and political instability, famine and drought, and who have crossed borders to maintain their vital existence, have been moving from East to West, from North to South. Turkey is a country located in the heart of the phenomena of migration – a fundamental characteristic of human history – as well as of the global and regional crises. In line with her history, culture and social fabric, Turkey is home to the world’s largest immigrant/refugee/asylum-seeker population. The humanitarian aid delivered to these migrant groups constituting approximately 5% of the country’s population makes Turkey the largest donor country. On the other hand, the spatial distribution of immigrant groups within the borders of the country is disproportionate and the risk that this situation poses in terms of national security; the issues ranging from the events of theft and violence to child brides to polygamy, to various factors such as the impact on the social fabric of the country and the burden on the country’s economy within the scope of services such as education, health and social services should be carefully scrutinised. It should be questioned how long Turkey can sustain this situation, which assumes the responsibility and burden of the geographies that the developed/prosperous countries ignore, seem to be unable to hear and feel. Moreover, while dealing with a number of problems in human, political, social, cultural and economic fields, the current situation of Turkey, which is increasingly being alienated and tried to destabilize, shows the importance of this question. In particular, the psychological climate of the Turkish society and the social reactions that can be caused by the radical demographic and socio-cultural changes may cause some fractures and conflicts. Therefore, policies, and projects put forward in order to deal with the life/integration/ adaptation processes and to compensate for potential problems need to be produced on ‘’a common mind’’. Migration in Turkey is not only a matter of definition and classification but also a multi-disciplinary phenomenon that needs to be addressed within the framework of the relationship of understanding. This work, produced in different areas of theoretical and applied studies (such as History, Public Administration, Law, International Relations, Education, Economics, Sociology, Health Services, Geography, and Communication) discusses at length the phenomenon of migration in Turkey by combining historical and current views of: 1. In this course, Haluk Songur and Fatma Sırtkaya depict the course of migration in the historical process, which still preserves its importance in the present day, in terms of Turkish legal history and contemplation, and the reasons of migration from the Ottoman period to the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, and how the state adopts a policy in the face of migration.2. In terms of “The Turkish Public Administration, Migration Policy and Organizational Structure: A Current Perspective”, Erdal Eke depicts the current status of migration policies and the migration organization formed within the framework of these policies especially after the 2000s. Within the scope of the study, especially after the Law No. 6458, the migration management is described at the central and local level and in 2018, the effects of changes related to the Presidential Government System on the management of migration are evaluated and an up-to-date perspective is drawn accordingly. 3. With her work entitled “The Validity of Status and the Validity of Local Integration as a Permanent Solution”, Arzu Güler evaluates the status of refugees and the refugees brought by the international protection law and questions the impact of this status on local integration. 4. With his work entitled “Humanitarian Diplomacy in the Turkish Foreign Policy and the Syria Crisis”, Adem Ali İren the humanitarian diplomacy process of the Turkish Republic on migration and the mobility of migration from Syria. The study underlines the fact that the Turkish Republic has become the real practitioner of humanitarian values by becoming the initiator and the main donor of humanitarian aid campaigns as well as being a mediator in the solution of the humanitarian crises and political problems in recent years. 5. Ahmet Yıldırım evaluates the policies and practices of the Ministry of National Education for the education of Syrian children who come to Turkey/to take refuge in terms of process management with the project entitled “Evaluation of The Policies of the Ministry of National Education in Terms of Process Management” on the axis of migration and refugees. 6. “Humanitarian Aid for Refugees: Turkey Dimension” with their work, Ahmet Songur and İbrahim Demirtaş try to describe the economic burden of education, health, social services undertaken by the Republic of Turkey as a result of migration in recent years through various statistics. 7. Hasan Hüseyin Aygül, with his work entitled “Experiences Relating to Refugees Labour Force Participation and Markets” addresses the employment areas and conditions of different migrant groups in Isparta, one of Turkey’s 62 satellite cities, and sets out the current problems of migrant groups based on market experience. 8. Fatih Kahraman, with his work entitled “The situation of Syrian Unaccompanied Refugee Children in Turkey”, discusses the situation of unaccompanied refugee children, one of the most influential groups of the civil war that continues since 2011 in Syria, within the framework of statistics of national and international institutions and studies on the issue.9. “The Effects of Migration on the Turkish Health System: On the Case of Syrian Asylum Seekers”, Osman Çöllü, discusses the effects of Syrian asylum seekers on the Turkish Health System through various statistics in terms of both individual and community health and health services.10. With their work entitled “Problems of Nursing Students Studying in the Province of Border, Kilis and Providing Healthcare to Syrian Patients in the Clinical Practice Area”, Çiçek-Korkmaz, Şekeroğlu and Bilgen, convey the health care conditions offered to Syrian refugees in Kilis, and the problems experienced by nursing students studying in the clinical practice areas in Kilis. 11. With her work entitled “A New Life Beyond the Border Syrian Asylum Seekers and The Geographical Effects of Migration: On The Case of Kilis”, Muazzez Harunoğulları reveals the Syrian refugee migration in Kilis, which is a border city and has almost as many Syrian refugees as its population, and the socio-spatial, cultural and economic effects of this migration, as well as the new social structure and problems that occur in the city. 12. With his work entitled “Refugees and Asylum-Seekers in Turkey: A Comparison of Online Media Discourses”, Rıza Ersin Öztürk compares the rhetoric developed by Hürriyet and Takvim online newspapers for refugees on a digital basis and ultimately asks whether the viewpoint on migration can be singularized. This book, which examines the phenomenon of migration from the perspective of the 21st century in a multidimensional way, provides contribution to the relevant literature as well as to the dynamism given by the collective power in scientific production and reveals the historical mission of Turkey. We would like to thank all of our authors who contributed to the creation of this book, Gülfem Dursun and especially the Nobel Publishing House (Nobel Yayınevi).
Turkey's Migration Policy Revisited: (Dis)Continuities and Peculiarities
Rome, IAI, October 2018, 17 p. (IAI Papers ; 18|16), ISBN 978-88-9368-083-7, 2018
The 2000s witnessed the restructuring of Turkey's migration policy, mostly because of the EU accession process. In retrospect, Turkey's migration and asylum policy did not unfold along a linear path and revealed certain gaps as well as continuities with its institutional and administrative heritage. Through incremental steps and limited policy changes, Turkey made small-scale variations from past policies and avoided radical changes. However, given Turkey's particular position at the national, regional and international level, the government in Ankara should pursue policies sharply diverging from the past, and especially insofar as refugee policy, geographical limitation, state-centricity and the security–human rights balance are concerned.
Turkey's Evolving Response to Migration Management: Facts and Policy Steps
Rome, IAI, March 2019, 8 p. (MENARA Future Notes ; 17), 2010
Previously being more a transit country for migrants trying to get asylum in Europe, Turkey has now become a country of immigration and turned into a country of residence for not only Syrian people but also other people from the MENA region. As a result of the growing trend in the number of arrivals the issue has also become a public and political agenda item and has prompted significant changes in the practices associated with the hosting and integration of refugees into the local community. Nevertheless, a number of steps still need to be taken to improve the standards of living of the refugees and to increase the sustainability of the process for the hosting state and society.
Migration-relevant policies in Turkey
Migration-relevant policies in Turkey, 2023
Publication information This work is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY NC 4.0 License. You are free to share and adapt the material if you include proper attribution (see suggested citation), indicate if changes were made, and do not use or adapt the material in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
Continuity or Change in Turkey’s Mass Migration Policy: From 1989 émigrés to Syrian “guests”
As a country being a stage for a variety of migratory movements for many years, Turkey, until recently, did not have a comprehensive migration and asylum policy which takes into account of the realities of those movements and responds accordingly. The need for such policy has brought with it the efforts to develop a migration regime of which the new Law on Foreigners and International Protection (LFIP) is an essential element. The factors which played a role in the growing need for a migration and asylum policy are the increasing number of irregular migrants in the country and the deterioration of the Syrian refugee crisis. The lack of a comprehensive migration and asylum policy has loomed large when the country is a stage for mass migration movements.
Turkey has developed into the sending, transiting and receiving position in regard of migration throughout the republic’s history. These characteristics have differed from time to time depending on the global migration trends. In the early period of the republic, ethnic concerns became the main influence of the policies. Like the other contemporary nation states, Turkey used migration as an instrument of “homogenization” and building the nation-state (Kirişçi, 2007; Erder, 2007, p:6). İskan Kanunu (settlement law), issued in 1934, is important to show a typical policy of the early period. Turkey maintained the iskân kanunu and was in force until recently. The iskan kanunu deteremined that only the Turks or people of Turkic origins including the Muslims coming from the ex-territories of the Ottoman Empire were accepted as an “immigrant”
Turkish Migration Conference 2015 Selected Proceedings
This book is a collection of selected papers presented at the 3rd Turkish Migration Conference (TMC). TMC 2015 was hosted by Charles University Prague, Czech Republic from 25 to 27 June 2015. The TMC 2015 was the third event in the series that we were proud to organise and host at Charles University Prague. This selection of papers presented at the conference are only a small portion of contributions. Many other papers are included in edited books and submitted to refereed journals in due course. There were a total of about 146 papers by over 200 authors presented in 40 parallel sessions and three plenary sessions at Jinonice Campus of Charles University Prague. About a fıfth of the sessions at the conference were in Turkish language although the main language was English. Therefore some of the proceedings are in Turkish too. The keynote speakers included Douglas Massey of Princeton University, Caroline Brettell of Southern Methodist University, and Nedim Gürsel of CNRS.
Introduction: Turkish migration policy at a glance
Turkish Migration Policy, 2016
Due to the large-scale migration from Turkey to Europe in general and Germany in particular Turkey has primarily been regarded as a migrant-sending country until recently. This image of Turkey characterizes, however, just one aspect of the Turkish migration history. Only since 2011 with the large influxes of Syrians and, there is a shift in the perception of Turkey as a destination country. Throughout history though, Turkey has always been a host country for sizeable inward population movements. There were several waves of population movements in the aftermath of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire: According to Karpat, between 1860s and 1922, around 4 million people migrated to Ottoman territories while later, about 1.5 million Muslims “were forced to take refuge in the Ottoman domains” (more or less the territories of modern Turkey). According to the Ministry of Resettlement, then Turkey received a total of 870,000 migrants of whom 400,000 were from Greece, 225,000 from Bulgaria, 120,000 from Yugoslavia, 120,000 from Romania and 10,000 from other Balkan countries. Along with individually arranged movements, large portion of these migrations were organised as a result of the Lausanne Treaty’s compulsory population exchange which took place between 1923 and 1926. This population exchange had an important impact on the nation-building process, which involved transforming a multi-ethnic empire of diverse elements into a homogeneous state. Thus, parallel to the settlement of migrants of Muslim descent, there was the resettlement, displacement of Turkey’s non-Muslims who have been largely expelled in the first half century from the new Turkish Republic .