Zeynep Kaşlı

Turkey has been part of an expanding European border regime through the construct of ‘transit’. Against the essentializing use of this term, this article aims to draw attention to the varied nature of ‘transit’ migration based on ethnographic research conducted in two cities of Turkey: Edirne and Kayseri. While both cities are subject to the EU-ization of migration and asylum management, we argue that their geographical positions cause variations in how they experience EU-ization and how they receive border-crossers and refugees. Variations are further intensified by different configurations of il/legality and il/licitness in each city. We claim that neither the state nor the European border regime, as actors and producers of il/legality, can predetermine the outcome of such configurations. ‘Transit’-ing is rendered il/licit, depending on the visibility and duration of the stay of border-crossers and refugees, their impact on local economies and the attitudes of local state actors.

Considering that established migrant associations often play an active role in migrants’ rights advocacy, the relationship between them and the growing numbers of irregular migrants needs careful scrutiny. Looking at the encounters between irregular Bulgarian Turkish migrants and associations established by their co-ethnics who hold Turkish citizenship in Turkey, our ethnographic evidence shows that co-ethnic migrant associations mobilise the legal frame of ‘ethnic deservingness’ with the intention of welcoming co-ethnics to the Turkish homeland. In the absence of other formal organisations for rights advocacy, associations’ appeals to this frame emerge as a civic resource for the irregular newcomers in their permanent residency claims. At the same time, the same frame hides unequal power relations within co-ethnic communities, that is, newcomers’ peripheral positions within associations and the economic costs of filing claims via associations. This situation creates a representational gap in the associational context between its active members with higher legal capital and irregular newcomers with lower legal capital. Tackling the problem of representation determined by the legal hierarchy, this study questions whether migrant associations should still be considered important political actors when undocumented/irregular migrants outnumber regulars—especially with regard to the immediate political/legal actions they require.

This paper discusses the ways in which the UN Protocol against Smuggling and its reception by UNHCR reinforce a certain image of the ‘smuggled migrant’ that emerges simultaneously as a ‘victim’ of smuggling and a ‘threat’ to the states’ authority over border crossings. The paper further claims that such seemingly contradictory images in fact complement one another and provide the legal and institutional basis to ‘manage’ migration by securitising it.

Abstract

The Greek-Turkish border was drawn with the Laussane Treaty of 1923 which also determined the minority regime for both countries and constructed the two nation-states as each other’s constitutive Other. Since late 1990s, the same border has become one of the EU’s critical borders for the management of the increasing migratory movement towards the EU. In this process, the EU-ization of the Greek-Turkish border regime has positive impacts on the societal relations with the neighboring nation-state as well as the state-minority relations in Turkey. Additionally, almost a century-old position and image of the city of Edirne, as the guardian of the Western borders of the nation-state, has also been transformed towards a regional and more inclusive image. Based on discourse analysis of local newspapers and in-depth interviews with local stakeholders of Edirne, which is taken a contact zone on the Greek-Turkish border, this paper argues the following: As (1) the discursive borders of interstate relations have been changing from antagonistic to cooperative relations, and (2) everyday cross-border interactions on the ground have become more diverse and more locally-driven ones, (3) the imagined borders dividing the self and the Other have also been redrawn based on new criteria of inclusion and exclusion. On the one hand the new border regime has become more permeable for various cross-border activities. On the other hand, the societal boundaries of identities and allegiances have been redrawn between national minorities, citizens of the neighboring countries, the old migrant groups and the new “transit” migrants. This historical analysis shows us that the changing notion of the Other could be best captured by taking the state borders not as outcomes per se but as processes of bordering that is shaped not only by the central authorities but also by local practices and interactions.

Keywords: Minority, Migrant, Othering, Turkey, Greece, EU-ization

1923 Lozan Antlaşması’yla çizilen ve her iki toplumu birbirinin kurucu Ötekisi haline getiren Türkiye-Yunanistan sınırı, son dönemlerde sınırötesi göç hareketlerindeki artışla birlikte Avrupa Birliği’nin önemli dış sınırlarından biri haline gelmeye başladı. 1990’ların sonlarından itibaren, Türkiye-Yunanistan sınır rejiminin AB-leşmesinin Türkiye’de hem devlet-azınlık ilişkileri hem de Ötekileştirilen komşu ulus-devlet ile kurulan toplumsal ilişkiler üzerinde önemli etkileri oldu. Bu süreçte, Türkiye-Yunanistan sınırındaki Edirne’nin eski sınır muhafızlığı pozisyonu ve imajı son dönemde yoğunlaşan ve çeşitlenen sınırötesi hareketliliklerle birlikte tekrar tekrar şekillenirken, birbiriyle çelişir gibi gözüken dışlama ve dahil etme söylem ve pratiklerinin bir arada durduğu görülmektedir. Edirne’de yapılan yerel gazete taraması ve derinlemesine görüşmelerde Trakya sınırının geçirdiği tarihsel dönüşüme dair edinilen bulgulara dayanan bu makalenin temel iddiası şudur: AB-leşen Türkiye-Yunanistan sınırına bir tür sınırötesi etkileşim sahası olarak baktığımızda görüyoruz ki (1) devletler arası ilişkilerin söylemsel sınırları esnek ve işbirlikçi bir rejime evrilirken, (2) sınırın ötesiyle toplumsal düzeyde ve gündelik hayatta kurulan ilişkiler çeşitlilik kazanmakta ve (3) “biz” ve “öteki” arasındaki çizgi bu kez başka kriterlerle yeniden çizilmektedir. Diğer bir deyişle, birbiriyle etkileşim halindeki bu üç boyutta şekillenen yeni sınır rejimi, bir yandan farklı gruplara sınırötesi hareketlilik açısından değişen derecelerde geçirgenlik sağlarken, diğer yandan toplumsal kimlik ve aidiyet sınırları da ulusal azınlıklar, komşu ülke vatandaşları ve farklı göçmen grupları arasında beliren yeni çizgiler üzerinden bir dönüşüm geçirmektedir. Bu süreçte eski sınır rejiminin kurucu Ötekileri olan komşu ülke ve azınlıkların yerini, bu kez AB sınırından geçmesi istenmeyen, gündelik hayatta çoğu zaman sadece “kaçak” ve/veya “kurban” olmalarına yapılan vurgu ile görünürlük kazanan “transit” göçmenler almaktadır. Bu tarihsel analiz bize, Öteki algısındaki değişimleri net biçimde görebilmek için, devlet sınırlarını da kendinden menkul sabitlenebilen olgular olarak değil, sürekli olagelen ve merkezden olduğu kadar sınır geçme/geçmeme pratikleriyle de tekrar tekrar şekillenen sınır çizme süreçleri (process of bordering) olarak ele almamız gerektiğini gösteriyor.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Azınlık, Göçmen, Ötekileştirme, Türkiye, Yunanistan, AB-leşme.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2017-03For almost a century, the Greek-Turkish antagonism has been central to the construction of notions of national citizenship and national territory in their official historiographies, state policies and public view. In the 2000s, Greek-Turkish relations have taken a more friendly direction, the old hostile us-them distinctions and the rights of minorities in each other’s lands have been revisited under the EU framework. This is also the period when transit migration through the Greek-Turkish border in the Thracian borderland and in the Aegean Sea has accelerated and gradually been met with stricter EU-led measures of border control. These developments are often studied as two distinct phenomena, in relation to nationalism-minority-citizenship nexus and migration-citizenship-security nexus respectively. My dissertation shows that these are manifestations of changing state-society relations. Following a cross-border historical approach and taking all moving subjects as a starting point allows a holistic analysis of this change. In this study, based on an ethnographically informed fieldwork in the Greek and Turkish border towns in Thrace, I look at the impacts of changing state-level relations since 1974, the heyday of the Cyprus conflict, at the local level on (a) governance of diversity and cross-border interactions, (b) cross-border mobility practices and (c) othering or the hierarchies of otherness between citizens, minorities, co-ethnics, and foreigners, be they the citizens of a neighboring country or migrants from third countries. I argue that this is a relational and dynamic regime of bordering which is best observed in the local state and nonstate actors’ activities, mobilities and interactions in three interrelated fields, namely security, economy, culture. The analysis of this Europeanizing regime of bordering reveals that states’ responsibility to control national territorial spaces against the passage and presence of unauthorized border-crossers has become shareable whereas sovereignty has remained national in economic and cultural fields. However, in each one of the three fields, uninstitutionalized cross-border mobility and cooperation practices of nonstate actors have significantly challenged the effectiveness of mechanisms of control and identifications determined by political centers. These practices then produce a new hierarchy of otherness that distinguishes subjects at two junctures. The first junction is legality which separates unauthorized from authorized border-crossers, or the invited versus the uninvited others. At the second junction, the unauthorized border-crossers are differentiated according to their perceived il/licitness whereas authorized ones, namely day trippers and commuters, are once again distinguished according to their ethno-religious kinship ties. These junctures reveal the specific conditions under which the power of states’ political centers in defining the notions of citizenship and territory are renegotiated or defied

Criminalising and Victimising the Migrant: Reflections on the UN Protocol and UNHCR's Position against Smuggling By Zeynep Kasli Abstract This paper discusses the ways in which the UN Protocol against Smuggling and its reception by UNHCR reinforce a certain image of the ' ...

Turkey has been part of an expanding European border regime through the construct of ‘transit’. Against the essentializing use of this term, this article aims to draw attention to the varied nature of ‘transit’ migration based on ethnographic research conducted in two cities of Turkey: Edirne and Kayseri. While both cities are subject to the EU-ization of migration and asylum management, we argue that their geographical positions cause variations in how they experience EU-ization and how they receive border-crossers and refugees. Variations are further intensified by different configurations of il/legality and il/licitness in each city. We claim that neither the state nor the European border regime, as actors and producers of il/legality, can predetermine the outcome of such configurations. ‘Transit’-ing is rendered il/licit, depending on the visibility and duration of the stay of border-crossers and refugees, their impact on local economies and the attitudes of local state actors.

ABSTRACT Considering that established migrant associations often play an active role in migrants’ rights advocacy, the relationship between them and the growing numbers of irregular migrants needs careful scrutiny. Looking at the encounters between irregular Bulgarian Turkish migrants and associations established by their co-ethnics who hold Turkish citizenship in Turkey, our ethnographic evidence shows that co-ethnic migrant associations mobilise the legal frame of ‘ethnic deservingness’ with the intention of welcoming co-ethnics to the Turkish homeland. In the absence of other formal organisations for rights advocacy, associations’ appeals to this frame emerge as a civic resource for the irregular newcomers in their permanent residency claims. At the same time, the same frame hides unequal power relations within co-ethnic communities, that is, newcomers’ peripheral positions within associations and the economic costs of filing claims via associations. This situation creates a representational gap in the associational context between its active members with higher legal capital and irregular newcomers with lower legal capital. Tackling the problem of representation determined by the legal hierarchy, this study questions whether migrant associations should still be considered important political actors when undocumented/irregular migrants outnumber regulars—especially with regard to the immediate political/legal actions they require.

After the granting of citizenship to the 300,000 Turkish migrants from Bulgaria in 1989, the Turkish state has proceeded to enact a series of visa regime changes concerning more recent migrants from Bulgaria, who, according to the most recent modification, are only allowed to stay for ninety days within any six month period. This paper argues that the arbitrariness sustained by Turkish immigration policies partakes, on the one hand, in more global trends to increase the vulnerability of the dispensable workforce required by neoliberal market economies and, on the other hand, the arbitrariness enhances the political power of the state within and outside of its borders. The temporary legalization of Bulgarian Turkish migrants in return for voting in the Bulgarian elections reveals that the state consolidates its transnational political power by drawing and redrawing the broken lines of legality/ illegality. Moreover we demonstrate not only the ways in which the migrant population from...

This paper provides an empirical classification of migration-related diversities in 166 European cities. The local turn in migration studies has shown that migration-related diversity may take varied forms in different cities. Our understanding of how and why cities differ is lagging behind the wealth of existing conceptualisations. This is partly because most studies look only at one kind of city, in particular, superdiverse global cities. This paper takes a systematic inductive approach to map the diversity of migration-related diversities in urban setting and understand the reasons behind such variations. Applying quantitative classification methods to European cities in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy, we search for a new meaningful classification of the urban diversity configurations based on measures of volume, variety and spread of migration-related diversity. Five empirical clusters of cities of migration are found: superdiverse cities, migrant minority cities, ne...

The Post-1990s immigrants (the new immigrants) from Bulgaria are distinguished from the pre-1990s immigrants (the old immigrants) by their lack of a permanent legal status. The focus of this thesis is the relationship between the new immigrants and the associations established by the old immigrants. The associations' actions for the new immigrants' legal incorporation are examined as they manifest the characteristics of the relationship between the new immigrants and the established associations. This study is based on an ethnographic fieldwork conducted between July 2007 and January 2010 mainly in Istanbul and partly in Izmir as well as interviews and participant observation in two well-established associations, BTSA (Balkan Turks Solidarity Association) in Istanbul and Bal-Goc in Izmir. The case study illustrates that the new immigrants' lack of legal status have created an uneven relationship between the old and the new immigrants in the associations established by th...

This article explores the extent and limits of anti-immigration discourse in recent political debates in Turkey. Anti-immigrant discourses have been at the heart of exclusionary populisms, where right-wing political actors present immigrants as economic, social and security threats. It is remarkable that this is not yet the case in Turkey, one of the world’s major refugee-receiving countries. Using an original dataset, composed of party programmes, parliamentary records and public statements by presidential candidates in the last two rounds of general and presidential elections between 2014 and 2018, we argue that politicians from both incumbent and opposition parties in Turkey have used the ‘refugee card’ to appeal to the growing social, economic and cultural grievances of their voters but in a rather limited and divergent manner. Debates over migration have oscillated between the Western European right-wing populist perception of ‘threat’ and the pro-Syrian and civilizationist pop...

Diaspora policies have recently become prominent for an increasing number of states. While the growing body of literature on new diaspora policies and institutions has shown these as a sign of a state's willingness to include populations from abroad into the polity, an equally new adjacent literature has emphasised the exclusive and controlling aspect of extra-territorial power of authoritarian states. This article argues that a consideration of co-occurrence of positive and negative diaspora politics is needed for a holistic understanding of state-led transnationalism and its contested relationship to national territory and popular sovereignty. In this article, we build on the example of Turkish policies, which on the one hand took considerable steps to include its citizens abroad and on the other continued the exclusion of the ‘enemies of the state’ and re-defined the limits of political membership at home and abroad. By analysing the new diasporic institutional practices, the enfranchisement of external citizens and the right to exit along with loss of citizenship provisions, we show that Turkish state policy disrupts the assumed holy trinity of nation-state-territory forging a de-territorialised unity between internal and external citizens, as well as a de-territorialised division along the lines of party loyalty. Looking at diasporic engagements in all three dimensions - institutional, political and legal-through the lens of citizenship, we demonstrate that they are neither the extension of a heavy handed extra-territorial state power nor of an all-inclusive diaspora policy but a more complex combination of the two.

Setting the policy agenda on
- Better regulation of support for social inclusion of the undocumented
- Sustaining the mainstreaming of integration
- Cities as direct service-providers

The Ask the expert policy briefs are highly informative tools proposed in the framework of the ReSOMA project that aim at facilitating knowledge sharing and social capital devel-opment. By reacting to current events and developments that shape the European migration and integration debate during the duration of the project, these policy briefs will pro-vide timely, evidence-based input to public debates as they unfold and feed in the over-all process of identifying the unmet needs and defining policy trends.