The Making of New Diasporic Communities?

While Turkey has progressively become an important immigration and refugee-hosting state, it continues to be an emigration country with movements particularly directed towards many European states. Since the 2000s, emigration from Turkey has been increasingly mixed with the appearance and frequent use of new migration channels, such as educational programmes and high-skilled schemes as well as the continuous use of family and asylum-seeking channels. This chapter contributes to the bourgeoning scholarship on Turkey’s diasporas by examining the migration motivations and channels of post-2000 migrants, which constitute a relatively less studied yet significant group for analysis given the substantial changes in the Turkish political, economic, and social fabric under the AKP rule. The chapter particularly stresses how these movements were affected by Turkey’s severely strained economy and deteriorating political situation and thereby serves as a good reminder of the fuzziness between forced and voluntary migration.