On 11 November 2024, we were invited to a meeting. The meeting had been organized by the Migration and Diaspora Foundation. The aim was to introduce the "Türkiye Migration Mobility Report." We examined the report, which covers the years 2016–2023. Both the relevant official records had been reviewed and findings were presented on the past, present, and future of migrant mobility in our country, along with proposals based on them.
The Foundation's Chairman of the Board, Mr. Recep Seyyar, also delivered a quite comprehensive speech. There was neither undue partisanship nor unnecessary anger in the report, nor anything objectionable in the speech delivered. We believe that this work, prepared with care by a civil society institution, will be taken into consideration by the competent authorities. For although more than ten years have passed over this matter, society has not been able to reach a consensus. Some are reflexively angry, some indifferent. Yet the matter is multidimensional and is not peculiar to our day alone. On this issue, which concerns our country, our citizens, and our guests along the axis of past–present–future, we must reflect on our migration policy and arrive at workable solutions. First, clarity of concepts is needed:
The concepts or definitions can be gathered under 5 headings: "migrant", "regular migrant", "irregular migrant", and "asylum seeker"…
We also call a migrant "muhacir." Muhacir and Ensar are timeless words of our civilization. Lengthy explanations of the definitions are written in the report. We can summarize them as follows:
Migrant: A person who moves from one country to another. The reasons for migration are economic opportunity, education, war, persecution, and so on…
Regular migrant: One who, in migrating to a country, comes in compliance with the immigration laws and regulations of the destination country...
Irregular migrant: One who enters a country by unlawful means and lives there in violation of the law. Or one who enters in compliance with the laws but continues to remain in that country after exceeding their residence permit. Some of these use the country in which they find themselves, in the capacity of an irregular migrant, as a transit country…
Asylum seeker: A person who has taken refuge in another country in order to be protected from or to escape persecution and grave human rights violations, but who is not yet legally recognized as a refugee. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in Article 14, states that everyone has the right to seek asylum in other countries. The 1951 UN Convention and the 1967 Protocol prohibited refugees from being returned to the country from which they came owing to the danger of persecution...
The findings in the report are, in broad outline, as follows:
-As of 2023, migration debates were made into election material in our country, and because of unwarranted assessments and promises, other states became a source of attraction for regular migrants — business people, scientists, students, and the like — who had previously preferred Türkiye.
-Türkiye, with more than 3 million asylum seekers, is the second state hosting the most asylum seekers in the world. With a presence of 6 million migrants, it also ranks 12th. Indeed, as of 2020 the number of asylum seekers arriving in our country from Syria has stopped. The problem in Türkiye is not the arrival of asylum seekers, but the failure to move asylum seekers into regular migrant status through a sound and systematic integration policy.
-In our country, 454,662 undocumented persons were apprehended in 2019. This number gradually declined, falling to 254,008 in 2023. Over the past year, 401,325 irregular migrants left our country of their own accord. Meanwhile, because of hurtful conduct, attacks, and bad words, qualified regular migrants also left.
-Migrant hostility, which has risen in the form of hostility toward Arabs in general and Syrians in particular, has been reflected not only onto those coming from the Arab geography but also onto regular migrants coming from the Turkic Republics, from Russia, and from other countries as well as the West.
We can also briefly look at the proposals in the report:
-Türkiye is not encountering the matter of migration for the first time in its history. Previously, in 1492, 1697, 1709, 1855, 1863, 1917, 1930… up until after the Second World War, it received migration in various forms under various governments, yet all of these were shaped to the benefit of the incoming people and of our country.
-Today 3.1 million Syrians, 900 thousand of whom were born in Türkiye, live in Türkiye. As of 2022, 223,881 people have acquired Turkish citizenship. Around 6 million Syrians, meanwhile, continue their lives on lands under Türkiye's control in the north of Syria. In this situation, the predictions or expectations that "the Syrians will leave" are far from reality.
-Belonging to the Turkish lineage and Turkish culture must be redefined. The children of regular migrants or asylum seekers in Türkiye receive compulsory education in our educational institutions for 12 years starting from age 6. When the 12-year period of schooling ends, these young people, who have reached the age of 18, may — by being subjected to an examination in Turkish and in fields deemed necessary, and upon passing the examination — be accepted by Presidential Decree as "of Turkish Lineage and Belonging to Turkish Culture." Otherwise, we fall into an error such as telling these young people — in whom we have invested so much time and effort and who are as good as our own children — "you cannot stay here!" after their schooling. In that case, generations who have become one of us will, like other qualified adults who leave, move to Germany or third countries, and Türkiye will remain a storehouse country bearing the burden.
The aforementioned report provides detailed information on this matter, over which some, instead of producing ideas and solutions, have fallen into the confusion of racism.
Everyone concerned should think coolly...
We must reach a shared, balanced consensus worthy of all.
You can access the relevant link here.
