Ahmet İçduygu

How do Smuggling and Trafficking Operate via Irregular Border Crossings in the Middle East? Evidence from Fieldwork in Turkey

This article summarizes main trends issues actors and activities regarding the operation and extension of human trafficking and smuggling via irregular border crossings in the Middle East. Its premise is that rather than the obvious involvement of hierarchical mafia-type organized crime groups globally articulated networks of locally operating independent individual groups comprise the essential foundation for human trafficking and smuggling in the region. The available empirical evidence first suggests that elaborating on various aspects of human trafficking and smuggling is a delicate task and any consideration of priorities for data collection and analysis on these activities must start with a clear idea of the information needed and how to obtain that information. Given the highly sensitive nature of trafficking and smuggling issues there is no simple research practice that can satisfy all these concerns. It is within this context that our analysis here only offers some partial explanation of the complex nature of human trafficking and smuggling in the Middle East. The data used here provide to the best of our knowledge the first primary reliable and representative information on traffickers and smugglers as they come directly from the narratives of the traffickers and smugglers interviewed. Evidence from our fieldwork in Turkey during the last five years indicates that the ongoing pattern of human trafficking and smuggling in the region is the outcome of quite complex interactions among locally operating individuals and groups with the simultaneous and sequential operation of a variety of interacting factors including: the presence of interpersonal trust relations between human traffickers and smugglers and the migrants and the existence of national- ethnic- kinship- friendship-based networks spanning countries of origin of transit and of destination worldwide. The study has confirmed that the nature of trafficking and smuggling in the Middle East is quite different from similar activities found elsewhere in the world. Nevertheless the study concludes that we should not disregard these issues from the perspective of criminal justice and human rights. (authors)

The politics of population in a nation-building process: emigration of non-Muslims from Turkey

Abstract Within the politics of nationalism and nation-building, the emigration of ethnic and religious minorities, whether voluntary or involuntary, appears to be a commonly occurring practice. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the early twentieth century, modern Turkey still carried the legacy of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious diversity in which its Armenian, Greek and Jewish communities had official minority status based upon the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. However, throughout the twentieth century, Turkeys non-Muslim minority populations have undergone a mass emigration experience in which thousands of their numbers have migrated to various countries around the globe. While in the 1920s the population of non-Muslims in the country was close to 3 per cent of the total, today it has dropped to less than two per thousand. This article analyses the emigration of non-Muslim people from Turkey and relates this movement to the wider context of nation-building in the country.

The Politics of International Migratory Regimes: Transit Migration Flows in Turkey

Since the early 1960s the relationship of Western European countries with Turkey has been intertwined with the high profile of migration. In the 1980s and 1990s it has been dominated by transit migration and asylum issues, and continues to develop as a hot debate on what should be done about them. With this back-ground, the present article investigates transit migration and refugee flows in Turkey, evaluates its wider context of the formation of migration, asylum and refugee regimes between Turkey and Europe, and relates the issue of transit migration to the ongoing dynamics of globalisation. It explores the ways in which transit migration flows are associated with the politics of international migration. It does so by taking a careful look at the politics of inter-national migratory regimes (IMRs), interpreting the word ‘regime’ very loosely to mean a regulatory system which operates in certain interests and distributes powers and advantages or disadvantages. It argues that the globalisation of human mobility has helped to extend inter-national migratory movements in a form of international regulatory system.

The Consequences of International Migration for the Status of Women: A Turkish Study

This study examines the direct and indirect impact of international migration on the status of Turkish women. Detailed interviews were conducted among 234 people aged 18 years and older that lived in 115 households. Respondents included 83 return migrants, 54 close relatives of migrants, 19 close friends of migrants, 34 close relatives and friends of migrants, and 44 controls. Findings indicate that return migrants held more progressive and less traditional attitudes and behavior, and controls were the opposite. Friends and relatives of migrants were between the two extremes but closer to migrants. The proportions of men and women who supported the covering of womens hair or disapproved of unmarried men having girlfriends were similar. Gender differences were more apparent in responses to access to birth control, choice of husband, employed womens control of earnings, and approval of an unmarried woman having boyfriends. Men tended to take a more traditional view on these issues. Many supported access to contraception for women, but men were half as likely to support womens access to contraception without a husbands knowledge. More men opposed access to contraception for unmarried women. Urban and rural differences occurred mainly over womens head covering, the acceptability of a woman living alone or higher education for both men and women, and unmarried womens control over boyfriends, income, husband selection, or living alone. Urban dwellers, the most educated, and people aged under 35 years were less traditional. There was considerable diversity of views on womens status among similar social groups. The authors conclude that it is unlikely that migration will move women closer to a less traditional status. The social changes evident in society are more likely the carriers of changing social customs.

Socio-economic Development and International Migration: A Turkish Study

The root causes of international migration have been the subject of a considerable number of studies for many years, a vast majority of them being based on development theories dominated by economy-oriented perspectives. An underlying assumption is that poverty breeds migration. The results, and the conclusions drawn from these studies differ widely. For instance, whether emigration grows when poverty becomes more extreme or less extreme, or why it reaches certain levels are issues on which research still offers a mixed answer. This article investigates the relationship between economic development and migration by taking into consideration the question of what degrees of economic development form thresholds for migrations. The paper focuses on recent evidence on the development and emigration relationship in Turkey which reflects a dimension of the dynamics and mechanisms facilitating or restricting migratory flows from the country. Using data from the 1995 District-level Socio-economic Development Index of Turkey (DSDI) and the 1990 Census, the principal aim of this study is to provide an analytical base which will identify the degrees of local level of development in Turkey, relate these to the international migration flows, and consequently to examine patterns of development-migration relationship.

The Politics of Irregular Migratory Flows in the Mediterranean Basin: Economy, Mobility and ‘Illegality’

Because of the irregular migration flows and use of irregular labour in their economies, most Mediterranean countries of southern Europe face administrative battles over the issue of so-called migration management. The main aim of this article is to elaborate how several countries of the northern Mediterranean Basin have experienced irregular migration flows in the past decade. Particular attention is devoted to the process in which, when economies are in need of labour, international labour flows might be inevitable even if the related rhetoric and policies towards immigration are unsympathetic. This is debated here over the triad of economy, mobility and ‘illegality’.

Mapping Civil Society in the Middle East: The Cases of Egypt, Lebanon and Turkey

This article comparatively assesses the meaning of civil society in Egypt, Lebanon and Turkey, by utilising the results of a study conducted among civil society actors. In recent decades, civil society has become integral to discussions of political liberalisation. At the same time, there is a growing rift between international democracy promotion through investment in civil society and the more critical literature on the relationship between the two. This article makes three contributions to these debates by comparing the actual experiences of civil society actors. First, it argues that the boundaries between states and civil societies are indeterminate, making it problematic to expect civil society organisations alone to become catalysts for regime transformation. Second, it shows that expectations of monolithic generation of civic values through civil society organisations do not reflect the actual experience of actors in this realm. Finally, it argues for taking into consideration other sources of mobilisation as potential contributors to meaningful political and social transformation.

Interacting Actors: The EU and Civil Society in Turkey

Civil society organisations in Turkey have remained highly visible in the countrys relations with the European Union (EU). Given the particular incentives that the EU offered for the empowerment of civil society actors during the pre-accession process, it has often been assumed that the EU context played an important role in this vibrant situation. However, this article argues that the EUs impact was highly ambivalent, and the contribution of civil society organisations to the EU membership process was frequently indecisive. It concludes that this ambivalent climate is mostly due to various aspects of the ill-functioning mechanisms of the EUs enlargement regime, on one hand, and particular problems inherited from the state–society relations and socio-political culture in Turkey that are associated with the civil society arena in the country.

EU-ization matters: Changes in Immigration and Asylum Practices in Turkey

Turkey’s transformation over the course of the last two decades into a land of immigration is one of the most significant features of its recent history and very much an issue of debate in the European Union (EU). As Turkey has been increasingly confronted with large-scale immigration and asylum flows, this relatively new migration phenomenon has had a number of social, economic and political implications, not only for the country, but also in the wider context of Europe (Icduygu 2004: 93; 2003: 7; Kirisci 2002: 7–10). In particular, the EU’s Helsinki decisions of December 1999, which declared the candidacy of Turkey to the EU membership, brought forward new questions and concerns in the area of immigration policies and practices in Turkey. One of the most widely debated issues in this context is the ‘management of migration and asylum flows’ arriving in the country, and in particular the question of how Turkey’s state institutions and legal frameworks would handle the phenomena of immigration and asylum. These debates have made clear that the health and stability of Turkey’s Integration into the EU depend not only on the economic, social and political transformations in the country, but also on specific policy matters. This chapter addresses the transformation of national immigration policies and practices in Turkey with regard to the role played by the EU’s promotion of the notion of ‘migration management’ in the process of European integration.

Turkish minority rights regime: Between difference and equality

Although there has not yet appeared an internationally recognized definition, the concept of ‘minority’ has traditionally been associated with those objective elements of citizenship, common ethno-cultural and linguistic heritage, and of subjective elements including having a sense of communal solidarity and willingness to preserve group-specific particularities. In other words, minority peoples have indicated those sections of national citizens who manifested ethno-cultural, linguistic and religious distinctions in respect of the mainstream identity category of the country’s majority population. Accordingly, the legal–political status of minority peoples in modern conditions has been based on two sources of citizenship and ethno-cultural distinctions. Individual equality and non-discrimination have constituted the foundational basis of the principle of citizenship which has inherently been associated with the principle of formal or universal equality that indicated a certain form of legal– political status having nothing to do with peoples’ particularities. Whether they belonged to majority or minority sections of the population, individual citizens have been subjected, in principle, to the same civil and political rights and freedoms. In so doing, however, citizenship practices have tended to abstract individuals from their ethno-cultural circumstances. Beyond doubt, legal equality is the sine qua non of citizenship status, but legal equality in itself is not sufficient to guarantee achievement of genuine equality, particularly in those social circumstances where population displayed ethno-cultural diversity. It is because of this that treating essentially different groups in an identical fashion, that is, treating minority groups in the same manner as the majority, has equally tended to violate principles of both equality and non-discrimination. Putting the matter differently, the principle of citizenship equality in culturally diverse societies calls for accommodating both similar and distinct circumstances of peoples. Having pointed out the fact that a theory and practice of equality ‘grounded in human uniformity is both philosophically incoherent and morally problematic’, Parekh suggested that ‘human beings are at once both natural and cultural beings’, that is ‘they are both similar and different . . .We cannot ground equality in human uniformity’, because, ‘while granting them equality at the level of their shared human nature, we deny it at the equally important cultural level’. For Parekh, only when we break the traditional equation of equality with similarity, the principle of equality would ‘require us to take into account both their similarities and differences’. Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 42, No. 3, 447 – 468, May 2006