Migration in Turkey

Abstract

Turkey is well known for its massive labour outflows to Europe, in particular to Germany, during the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s. After the guest-worker system in Europe was abolished, receiving regions for labour emigration diversified. Following the 1980 military coup, the emigration of asylum seekers and people seeking family reunification from Turkey has continued. However, in addition to this persistent emigration phenomenon—which has traditionally been very significant—over last two decades, Turkey also became a country of immigration and transit owing to its geographical position and lax migratory regime. Moreover the thesis considers consequences of the migratory flows mentioned above, on economic development in Turkey. Above all, the inflow of remittances is mentioned with regard to possible return migration (brain gain) or permanent settlement (naturalization). The EU’s concerns relate mainly to migration policies applied in Turkey. Firstly securing the external borders against irregular migration, human smuggling and trafficking is one of challenges for the EU, and also has recently become a challenge for Turkish migration policy. Secondly, the lifting of the geographical limitation on 1951 Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees would not only lead to ‘burden sharing’ with European countries, but most importantly, together with the introduction of integration policies, this would significantly improve situation of asylum applicants staying in Turkey temporarily.