Turkish Migration Conference

Turkish Migration Conference
Comparative Perspectives and Continuities
30th May – 1st June 2014
Regent’s Centre for Transnational Studies
Regent’s University London
www.regents.ac.uk/RCTS
SESSION 9.C. Reverse Mobility 2
(188) Enver Tasti (TurkStat), Neriman Can Ergan (TurkStat), Serife Dilek Yilmaz (TurkStat), Metin Aytac
(TurkStat) and Ibrahim Sirkeci (TurkStat)
Return migration patterns in Turkey by 2000 and 2011 Censuses
Turkey is the country of origin for one of the largest diaspora populations in the world. Since the 1960s,
mass emigration flows from Turkey have created sizeable Turkish immigrant communities in Western Europe.
The network theory as well as cumulative causation theory leads us to the creation of cultures of migration
over time. This means international migration tends to be two way street. With the momentum by stable economic growth and political stability in the country, immigration to Turkey became important. This has
coincided with the return migration of Turks abroad, retirement migration of Turkish emigrants along with
others, and immigration of second and third generations of the early Turkish emigrants.
In this study, we have explored the changing patterns of return migration by analysing the most recent
census data. Although this appears to be a smaller segment of the total population as well as the Turkish born
immigrant population in the censuses of 2000 and 2011. The paper investigates the tendency of returning to
the birth places and the reasons behind these patterns. Comparisons will be presented between non-movers
and movers. Some comparisons with the foreign-born immigrants in Turkey will also be presented.
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(61) Ülkü Güney (Abant Izzet Baysall University) and Safiye Yıldız (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen)
‘Re-migration’ of Türkish-German academics: theoretical and empirical approaches
In recent years, alarmed by the media reports, based on the survey of Sezer and Dağlar (2009), about the
growing numbers of emigrating Turkish-German- academics, focus of the academic debates in Germany shifted from the issue of integration to the issue of emigration of highly skilled professionals and academics. This
voluntary emigration from a highly developed country such as Germany, to a developing country such as Turkey is a new and surprising phenomenon that brought about a controversial debate among social scientists and
in the media. Thus the interest in ‘return migration’, particularly from Germany to Turkey, has a number of
important
consequences
for
the
study
of
the
re-migrants.
A frequently articulated perspective about the re-migrants is centred on a deficit or problem oriented viewpoint (Gogolin 2000). Yet others continued working with the ‘brain-drain’ approach (Flocke 2008) although it
is somewhat limiting and inappropriate in this context. Along with Pries (1997b) Aydın considers the emigration of highly qualified professionals and academics not as a classical ‘return migration’ or ‘returning home’ but
as ‘transmigration’ which disrupts the frame of classical explanations mentioned above (2010).
Indeed this new experience of migratory movement calls for a new conceptualisation involving Pries’
(1996, 1997, 1998) theory of ‘transnational social space’.
In our presentation we will focus on ‘re-migration’ of Turkish-German academics to Turkey, which is a
relatively new occurrence in many aspects and necessitates a new approach to the literature beyond the classical theories of push and pull factors. This also involves a critical engagement with the theories of both
‘transnationalism’ (Faist 2010) and ‘social network’ (see Cassarino 2004).
Thus at first we are going to explore different approaches to migration research in Germany and Turkey.
And then we will discuss applicable new conceptualisations to re / trans- migration of Turkish–German academics bearing in mind the applicability of notions of ‘diaspora’ and ‘border-crossings’ (Thomson 2002) and
‘the third space’ (Bhabha1990).
In doing so our aim is to open up new methods and perspectives for research on re/trans-migration.
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(202) Sirin Turkay (British Embassy Istanbul)
Models of Dealing with the Mass Influx from Syria: National Response and Diversifying
Challenges for Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece
Illegal border crossings and increasing asylum applications have been an increasing problem in Turkey
and EU during the recent years especially after the Syria crisis starting in April 2011. The responses of Turkey,
Greece and Bulgaria have been diverse and important in terms of seeing the political, social and economic dynamics that shape the policies in these countries. Being EU members, Bulgaria and Greece are bound with the
EU standards and procedures, but their responses face serious criticisms from NGOs and international institu-
tions. On the other hand, Bulgarian authorities claim that they are left alone by EU during this influx and they
do not have capacity to tackle the situation.
(175) Yucel Acer (Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University), Mahir Gümüş (Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University)
and Ibrahim Sirkeci (Regent’s Centre for Transnational Studies
Management of asylum and migration in the UK and Turkey
Migration flows are influenced and moderated by a multitude of factors including demographic, economic and social circumstances as well as domestic and international policy preferences These factors have a
power
to
moderate
the
size
and
directions
of
migration
flows.
Being a candidate state for full membership of EU as well as one of the countries of origin of migration to
Europe for many years, Turkey’s position on migration policies is closely linked to policy developments in
Europe while also facing her own challenges concerning migration, such as the recent refugee inflows. Therefore, comparing the legal political frameworks with the United Kingdom, the leading immigration destination
and a favourite target destination for asylum flows does make sense. Such comparison may be helpful in enhancing Turkey’s newly emerging integrated legal framework concerning the management of migration.
The two main structural changes faced by both countries relate to the organisational structure: Changes
to the United Kingdom Border Agency (UKBA) and the creation of Migration General Directorate in Turkey.
Management of migration covers various issues such as institutional structure, policy making, personnel, border control, visa regime, migration statistics and related issues, which are all particularly relevant for the
current developments in Turkey. The reasons behind the changes of the status of UKBA have strong reflections on the practical application of the new rules concerning management of migration in Turkey. Eventually,
this paper focuses on the possible lessons to be learned from the experience of UKBA for Turkey’s future
practice concerning the issues mentioned.
Especially from Turkey perspective, three issues related to migration management and institutional structure have importance; policy making, regulation and implementation. In this respect, for a better migration and
asylum system for both Turkey’s peculiar needs and for the fulfilment of the obligation to accord to EU’s migration and asylum regulations, it is important to consider how the issues below is going to be shaped:
Regular migration policies: Turkey’s Migration policies should be to designate regular migration policy
and
the
targets
of
the
country.
New methods of migration analysis: traditional statistical methods are no longer sufficient to description present characteristics and forecast of possible future scenarios.
Migration and border management synchronization: Migration management is very closely related to
border management, and there would be some challenges in practice to bring the migration management into
action at a desired level before establishing an institutional infrastructure on border management.
Data generation: research and policy making share a common concern, without data, there is no
knowledge
based
decision
or
analysis.
Administrative performance and control mechanisms, processes of refugee status determination in collaboration with UNHCR, the processes management of migration and integration policy and defining key indicators
of the Directorate’s performance can also enumerated.
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