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Management of irregular migration: Syrians in Turkey as paradigm shifters for forced migration studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2016

Nergis Canefe
Nergis Canefe*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, M3J 1P3, Canada, ncanefe@yorku.ca
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Abstract

In the context of the series of civil wars that have struck the Middle East since the 1980s, the politico-economic changes in the post-Soviet geography of Eastern Europe and the Russian states, and the continuous turmoil in those parts of Africa and Asia where access to Turkish soil has been possible, Turkey emerged as a regional hub for receiving continuous flows of forced migration. As suggested by ample evidence in recent work on migration flows into Turkey, many of these “irregular migrants,” “stateless peoples,” or “asylum seekers” eventually become continuously employed under very unstable circumstances, thus fitting into the definition of the “precariat” or precarious proletariat. This paper examines the context within which such pervasive precarity takes root, directly affecting vulnerable groups such as the Syrian forced migrants arriving in Turkey in successive waves. The marked qualities of the Syrian case in terms of social precarity, combined with the degrees of disenfranchisement and economically precarious conditions for survival, indicates an institutionalized paradigm shift in the Turkish state’s management of irregular migration.

Keywords

Precaritystatelessnessforced migrationillegal migrationirregular migrationrefugee regimelabor law.

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Type
Articles
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New Perspectives on Turkey , Volume 54: Special Issue on Precarious Lives and Syrian Refugees in Turkey , May 2016 , pp. 9 - 32
Copyright
© New Perspectives on Turkey and Cambridge University Press 2016 

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