Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T09:42:59.085Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Astray and Stranded at the Gates of The European Union: African Transit Migrants in İstanbul

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2015

Deniz Yükseker  and
Kelly Todd Brewer
Deniz Yükseker
Affiliation:
Koç University, Department of Sociology, Rumeli Feneri Yolu, Sarıyer, İstanbul 34450, dyukseker@ku.edu.tr.
Kelly Todd Brewer
Affiliation:
Sabancı University, Foundations Development Program, Orhanlı, Tuzla, Istanbul, brewer@sabanciuniv.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper discusses the consequences of EU migration control policies on irregular and transit migration in Turkey by focusing on African migrants. Our argument is that the EU's concern with transit migration through the Mediterranean and hence its externalization and securitization of migration control have contributed to Turkey's becoming a waiting room for irregular and transit migrants. Based on the findings of a survey with African migrants in İstanbul and analysis of secondary sources, we show that many African migrants get stranded in Turkey. In the absence of an institutional setup for migration management and the prevalence of a security approach, migrants are faced with humanitarian problems and human rights violations.

Keywords

African migrants in Turkeyasylum seekingirregular migrationtransit migrationEU migration policy
Type
Articles
Information
New Perspectives on Turkey , Volume 44 , Spring 2011 , pp. 129 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © New Perspectives on Turkey 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adepoju, Aderanti. “Review of Research and Data on Human Trafficking in sub-Saharan Africa.” International Migration 43, no. 1/2 (2005): 75–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“AİHM'den Türkiye'ye Bir Günde Beş Ceza.” Sabah, July 10, 2010, http://www.sabah.com.tr.Google Scholar
“Ankara'nın Onaylamadığı Afrikalılar'a Vize Verilmeyecek.” Zaman, February 17, 2005, http://www.zaman.com.tr/?bl=butun&trh=20050217&hn=143918.Google Scholar
Baldwin-Edwards, Martin. “‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place’: North Africa as a Region of Emigration, Immigration and Transit Migration.” Review of African Political Economy 33, no. 108 (2006): 311–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baldwin-Edwards, Martin. “Semi-Reluctant Hosts: Southern Europe's Ambivalent Response to Immigration.” Brown Journal of World Affairs 8, no. 2 (2002): 211–229.Google Scholar
Birch, Nicholas. “Turkish Trade in Migrant Players Shows How Asylum Seekers Are Being Sidelined.” The Irish Times, August 8, 2008, http://www.lexisnexis.com.Google Scholar
Carling, Jorgen. “Unauthorized Migration from Africa to Spain.” International Migration 45, no. 4 (2007): 3–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collyer, Michael. “Migrants, Migration and the Security Paradigm: Constraints and Opportunities.” Mediterranean Politics 11, no. 2 (2006): 255–270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collyer, Michael. “States of Insecurity: Consequences of Saharan Transit Migration.” Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, 2006.Google Scholar
Collyer, Michael. “Stranded Migrants and the Fragmented Journey.” Journal of Refugee Studies 23, no. 3 (2010): 273–293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collyer, Michael, and Haas, Hein de. “Developing Dynamic Categorisations of Transit Migration.” Population, Space and Place 17 (2011): (in press).Google Scholar
Danış, Didem, Taraghi, Cherie, and Perouse, Jean-Francois. “‘Integration in Limbo’: Iraqi, Afghan, Maghrebi and Iranian Migrants in İstanbul.” In Land of Diverse Migrations: Challenges of Emigration and Immigration in Turkey, edited by İçduygu, Ahmet and Kirişci, Kemal, 443–636. İstanbul: İstanbul Bilgi University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
de Haas, Hein. “Turning the Tide? Why Development will not Stop Migration.” Development and Change 38, no. 5 (2007): 819–841.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Düveli, Franck. “Questioning Conventional Migration Concepts: The Case of Transit Migration.” In Workshop on “Gaps and Blindspots of Migration Research.” Central European University, Budapest, 2006.Google Scholar
Düveli, Franck. “Transit Migration: A Blurred and Politicised Concept.” Population, Space and Place 17 (2011): (in press).Google Scholar
Fargues, Philippe. “Work, Refuge, Transit: An Emerging Pattern of Irregular Migration South and East of the Mediterrenean.” International Migration Review 43, no. 3 (2009): 544–577.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frantz, Elizabeth. “Report on the Situation of Refugees in Turkey: Findings of a Five-Week Exploratory Study, December 2002-January 2003.” (2003), http://www.aucegypt.edu/academic/fmrs/Reports/ TurkeyReport.pdf.Google Scholar
FRONTEX, Press Release, http://www.frontex.europa.eu/newsroom/news_releases/art85.html.Google Scholar
Helsinki Citizens Assembly. “Unwelcome Guests: The Detention of Refugees in Turkey's ‘Foreigners' Guesthouses’.” İstanbul: Helsinki Citizens Assembly Refugee Advocacy and Support Program, 2007.Google Scholar
Human Rights Watch. “Stuck in a Revolving Door. Iraqis and Other Asylum Seekers and Migrants at the Greece/Turkey Entrance to the European Union.” 121. New York: Human Rights Watch, 2008.Google Scholar
Hyndman, Jennifer. Managing Displacement: Refugees and the Politics of Humanitarianism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Içduygu, Ahmet. “EU-ization matters: Changes in Immigration and Asylum Practices in Turkey.” In The Europeanization of National Policies and Politics of Immigration, edited by Faist, Thomas and Ette, A., 201–222. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Içduygu, Ahmet. “Irregular Migration in Turkey.” Geneva: International Organization for Migration, 2003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Içduygu, Ahmet, and Toktaş, Şule. “How do Smuggling and Trafficking Operate via Irregular Border Crossings in the Middle East? Evidence from Fieldwork in Turkey.” International Migration 40, no. 6 (2002): 25–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Içduygu, Ahmet, and Biehl, Kristen. “The Turkish Case: İstanbul.” Managing International Urban Migration: Türkiye-ltalia-Espana, 34. İstanbul: MIREKOC, 2009.Google Scholar
Içduygu, Ahmet, and Sert, Deniz. “Irregular Migration at Two Borders: the Turkish-EU and Mexican-US Cases.” edited by The Fund, German Marshall. Washington, DC: GMF, 2010.Google Scholar
Içduygu, Ahmet, and Yükseker, Deniz. “Rethinking Transit Migration in Turkey: Reality and Re-presentation in the Creation of a Migratory Phenomenon.” Population, Space and Place 17 (2011): (in press).Google Scholar
İHD. “Afrikalı Göçmen ve Mülteciler Açlığa ve Ölüme Terkedildi.” İnsan Hakları Derneği, 2001.Google Scholar
IOM. “World Migration. Costs and Benefits of International Migration.” Geneva: International Organisation of Migration, 2005.Google Scholar
“‘Kaçak’ Bırakan Yunan Botuna Suçüstü.” Radikal, September 20, 2006, http://www.radikal.com.tr/haber. php?haberno=199178.Google Scholar
Keough, Leyla. “Globalizing Post-Socialism: Mobile Mothers and Neoliberalism on the Margins of Europe.” Anthropological Quarterly 79 (2006): 432–461.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirişci, Kemal. “Informal ‘Circular Migration’ to Turkey: the Bureaucratic and Political Context.” CARIM, Analytical and Synthetic Notes – Circular Migration Series, Political and Social Module: CARIM, 2008.Google Scholar
Kirişci, Kemal. “UNHCR and Turkey: Cooperating for Improved Implementation of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.” International Law of Refugee Law 13, no. 1-2 (2002): 71–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koser, Khaled. “New Approaches to Asylum.” International Migration 39, no. 6 (2001): 85–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laitinen, Ilkka. “FRONTEX Five Years on: a Short Discussion of the Agency's Key Activities and Outcomes to Date (Interview).” Eurasylum, no. September (2010), http://www.eurasylum.org/Portal/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabindex=4&tabid=19.Google Scholar
Lutterbeck, Derek. “Policing Migration in the Mediterranean.” Mediterranean Politics 11, no. 1 (2006): 59–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monzini, Paola. “Sea-Border Crossings: The Organization of Irregular Migration to Italy.” Mediterranean Politics 12, no. 2 (2007): 163–184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parla, Ayşe. “Irregular Workers or Ethnic Kin? Post 1990s Labor Migration from Bulgaria to Turkey.” International Migration 45, no. 3 (2007): 158–181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pastore, Ferruccio. “Core-Periphery Relations in the European Migration Control System.” In IMISCOE Conference on “(Irregular) Transit Migration in the European Space: Theory, Politics, and Research Methodology.” İstanbul, 2008.Google Scholar
Pastore, Ferruccio, Monzini, Paola, and Sciortino, Giuseppe. “Schengen's Soft Underbelly? Irregular Migration and Human Smuggling across Land and Sea Borders to Italy.” International Migration 44, no. 4 (2006): 95–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saymaz, İsmail. “Bay ‘Hiçkimse'nin Varlığı Kanıtlandı!” Radikal, 20 October, 2010, http://www.radikal.com.tr/Radikal.aspx?aType=RadikalDetayV3&ArticleID=1024556&Date=20.10.2010&CategoryID=77.Google Scholar
Schapendonk, Joris. “The Dynamics of Transit Migration: Insights into the Migration Process of Subsanaran African Migrants Heading for Europe.” University Nijmegen, not dated.Google Scholar
Schapendonk, Joris. “Stuck between the Desert and the Sea.” In GLOMIG International Dissemination Conference. METU, Ankara, 2008.Google Scholar
Smith, Helena. “50 Migrants Feared Dead as Boat Capsizes.” The Guardian, December 11, 2007, http://www.lexisnexis.com.Google Scholar
Smith, Helena. “People Smuggling: An Idyllic Greek Island Becomes the New Frontier for African Migrants.” The Guardian, December 3, 2007, http://www.lexisnexis.com.Google Scholar
Stola, Dariusz. “Two Kinds of Quasi-Migration in the Middle Zone: Central Europe as a Space for Transit Migration and Mobility for Profit.” In Patterns of Migration in Central Europe, edited by Wallace, C. and Stola, D.. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001.Google Scholar
Şimşek, Yurdagül. “Mülteci Kampında Aşk bile Yasak.” Radikal, June 8, 2010, http://www.radikal.com.tr/Radikal.aspx?aType=RadikalHaberDetayV3&Date=08.06.2010&ArticleID=1001322.Google Scholar
Türker, Yıldırım. “Yamyamlar.” Radikal, September 17, 2007, http://www.radikal.com.tr/haber. php?haberno=233128.Google Scholar
Uehling, Greta. “Irregular and Illegal Migration through Ukraine.” International Migration 42, no. 3 (2004): 77–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
UNHCR. “UNHCR Deplores Refugee Expulsion by Turkey which Resulted in Four Deaths.” Geneva: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2008.Google Scholar
Vives, Luna. “Editorial: Over the Fence: The Militarization of the Senegalese-Spanish Sea Border.” African Geographical Review, no. 28 (2009): 5–9.Google Scholar
Wallace, Claire. “The New Migration Space as a Buffer Zone?” In Patterns of Migration in Central Europe, edited by Wallace, C. and Stola, D.. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallace, Claire. “Opening and Closing Borders: Migration and Mobility in East-Central Europe.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 28, no. 4 (2002): 603–625.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“Yunanistan Hiç Acımıyor.” Radikal, September 27, 2006b, http://www.radikal.com.tr/haber.php?haberno=199857.Google Scholar