Country Profile
GAPs Country Profile: Turkey / Blog Posts
Destiny Deferred for Afghans in Istanbul
by: Negin Derviş (Contracted Freelance Researcher, GAPs Project) | Özyeğin University
‘I am without destiny.’ These are the words used by a number of Afghan migrants in Istanbul to sum up their lives to me in interviews over the past couple of years. The physical violence that many left behind at home in Afghanistan and the dangers they faced as they were being smuggled into Türkiye have been…
The Role of Infrastructure Investments in the Return of Syrian Refugees: The Case of Turkish Military Operations in Northern Syria
by: Umutcan Yüksel | Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul (SRII)
Türkiye is the largest host and transit country for refugees on the eastern Mediterranean route to Europe. It hosts 3.2 million Syrian refugees and 260,000 non-Syrian refugees, including Afghans, Pakistanis, and Iraqis under International Protection. Initially adopting a welcoming policy, Türkiye has gradually implemented more closed-door and restrictive measures due to security threats and worsening social cohesion which have also impacted the domestic political arena.
Qualitative methods to understand intersectional refugee perceptions on return through a trajectory approach
by: Susan Beth Rottmann, Maissam Nimer | Özyeğin University
Nawal is exactly how I (Susan) remember her, vibrant, energetic, smiling, dressed in a green flowing dress with a white head scarf wrapped in the Turkish style. We are sitting at the Fatih Municipality café, a cavernous grey-brown room with large windows looking onto Adnan Menderes Boulevard. Nawal orders carrot cake along with two hot teas, and we begin chatting about our lives…
The politicization of refugees in Turkey’s elections is not yet over with local elections on the way...
by: Zeynep Mencütek, BICC | Musa Kurt (Intern), BICC
Turkey recently left behind the 2023 Parliamentary and Presidential elections in which the refugee issue was among the top agenda items in the campaigns of the parties. The refugee issue is not a new one in Turkey. It was on the table in the 2018 national and 2019 local elections, but it was only extremely politicized recently when parties took explicit anti-refugee stances in the recent election. Several party campaigns were marked by promises to repatriate Syrian refugees…
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)…
GAPs Country Profile: Turkey / Publications
The GAPs Data Repository provides an overview of available qualitative and quantitative data on national return regimes by structuring them into five main categories: profile, legislation, infrastructure, international cooperation and descriptive statistics. Each category, particularly statistics, includes several sub-categories. These categories are identified by consulting the literature review, existing datasets on migration, and insights from expertise/empirical data collection of 14 countries. The categories and sub-categories are chosen according to their relevance in understanding the return and readmission policies and practices, data accessibility, reliability, clarity as well as comparability. Data collection is carried out by national experts, entries are realized through REDCap Software ensuring a secure web connection with authentication and data logging. These enable systematic organisation, storage, and retrieval of data during and after the project. For viewing the entire data set or to contribute data entries please contact the coordinators of Horizon Europe project GAPs.