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

2016 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 9-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nergis Canefe

AbstractIn 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.

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2SI) ◽  
pp. 571-581
Author(s):  
Evrim Çınar

The irregular migration flows in the last decade from countries, where there are social unrest, civil wars and economic turmoil, towards developed western countries are one of the most populated human movements since the WWII. Hence each immigration flow has its own characteristics, the current irregular flows reveal a new migration outcome; the balance between State Security and Migrant Security. Since the migration policies are control based in some destination countries, they take precaution in order to reduce the irregular immigration flows by signing bilateral readmission agreements with 3rd countries. In that respect, Turkey and European Union relations in terms of irregular migration flows play a crucial and critical role due to its condition of transit migration state. The European Union accession process brought Turkey heavy duties. Controlling and preventing irregular migration became an obligation to its membership and to achieve its goals Turkey signed a readmission agreement with European Union. However, as any method of preventing irregular migration flows, Readmission Agreement of Turkey effect the balance between destination country security and irregular migrant security, especially refugees and asylum seekers rights. The main goal of this article is to find an answer to this question: does the Readmission Agreement of Turkey provide a balance between State Security and Migrant Security? This article intends to analyze the adverse security conditions of irregular migrants and state security compulsions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Korntheuer ◽  
Michaela Hynie ◽  
Martha Kleist ◽  
Safwathullah Farooqui ◽  
Eva Lutter ◽  
...  

The purpose of this article is to explore the existing intersectional knowledge on integration and resettlement of refugees with disabilities in two of the top five resettlement countries in the world, Germany and Canada. There is limited research on the intersection of migration and disability, especially in the context of refugee resettlement. Reflecting the dominant pathways of migration in each country, what little research there is focuses on asylum seekers in Germany, and immigrants in Canada. The review describes settlement programs in each country. We draw from the global literature around forced migration and disability, as well as disability and migration more broadly in each country, to enhance the limited existing research and conduct an intersectional analysis at the level of systems, discourses and subjective narratives. Findings highlight three dominant themes that weave across all three levels: being a “burden” on society, being invisible, and agency and resistance. Finally, drawing from the theoretical stance of Disability Studies, critical, and holistic integration theories we discuss how this intersectional analysis highlights the importance of reshaping the policies, discourse and definition of integration, and the consequences this can have on research, service delivery, and evaluation of integration and resettlement.


Author(s):  
Andrew Geddes

This article argues that a distinct repertoire of social and political contention associated with migration and the presence of immigrants in the UK plays a large part in structuring responses to ostensibly ‘new’ migration challenges such as people smuggling and human trafficking. This repertoire includes the elision and confusion of migration categories (particularly in this instance between irregular migration and asylum); the impact of state policies on the creation of ‘unwanted’ migration flows; fears of floods and invasions by ‘unwanted’ migrants; concerns that the state is losing control of migration; the depiction of migration and migrants as causes of increased support for the extreme right; the existence of labour market pull factors that provide economic spaces for both regular and irregular migrants; the symbolic power but limited effect of an international human rights regime and discourse; and problems of policy implementation. The contemporary twist is provided by the links made between irregular migration and the ‘war on terror’ and the ways in which migration has become a component of bilateral relations between the UK and other states, particularly those structured by EU competencies.


Author(s):  
Ronald Labonté ◽  
Arne Ruckert

Migration, the movement of people from birthplace to other-place, whether within their own borders or internationally, is one of globalization’s leitmotifs. The scale of migration has risen rapidly in recent decades, some of it the ‘pull’ of opportunities in other countries, but much of it the ‘push’ of poverty, unemployment, conflicts, and environmental degradations that make life unlivable for many. Migration can improve the health and well-being of migrants, and the remittances sent home by overseas émigrés can contribute to domestic poverty reduction in the countries they leave. But forced migration, migrant exploitation, and increasing barriers to the lesser-skilled irregular migrants or asylum-seekers most able to benefit by moving abroad have given rise to new global imperatives to ‘manage migration’ ethically and effectively. Both men and women may be vulnerable to exploitation along the migratory path, but women face additional gendered discriminations in the risk of assault and trafficking.


2007 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 655-674 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNE McNEVIN

AbstractIn this article I argue that the demands of irregular migrants to belong to political communities constitute key contemporary sites of ‘the political’. I also argue that geographies associated with neoliberal globalisation (transnational production circuits, special economic zones and global cities) are implicated in irregular migration flows and in new conceptions of political belonging. In relation to these claims, I reflect upon recent mobilisations in the US context, in which hundreds of thousands of irregular migrants and their supporters asserted the right to belong. I suggest that similar claims to belong are likely to proliferate and that neoliberal geographies may provide some clues as to where and how these contemporary frontiers of the political might proceed. I conclude by suggesting that a multidimensional approach to political belonging provides a sound conceptual starting point for the analytical and normative challenges raised by both the claims of non-status migrants and the sovereign practices of contemporary states.


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriella Sanchez

What are the challenges and the advantages of using an intersectionality-informed approach in criminological research? In this essay I raise that question via an analysis of human smuggling discourses. Tragic events involving the deaths of irregular migrants and asylum seekers in transit are most often attributed to the actions of the human smuggler— constructed as the violent, greed-driven, predator racialized, and gendered as a male from the global South. Most academic engagements with smuggling often failing to notice the discursive fields they enter, have focused on documenting in detail the victimization and violence processes faced by those in transit, in the process reinscribing often problematic narratives of irregular migration, like those reducing migrants to naïve and powerless creatures and smugglers as inherently male, foreign and criminal bodies. I argue that essentialized notions of identity prevalent in neoliberal discourses have permeated engagements with migration, allowing for human smuggling’s framing solely as an inherently exploitative and violent practice performed by explicitly racialized, gendered Others. In what follows I start to articulate the possibility of reframing human smuggling, shifting the focus from the mythified smugglers to the series of social interactions and sensorial experiences that often facilitated as demonstrations of care and solidarity ultimately lead to the mobility, albeit precarious, of irregular migrants. Through a critical engagement with the concept of intersectionality I explore how smuggling—as one of multiple irregular migration strategies—can be unpacked as constituting much more than the quintessential predatory practice of late modernity performed by criminal smugglers preying on powerless victims, to be instead acknowledged as an alternative, contradictory, highly complex if often precarious path to mobility and safety in and from the margins.


2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Martina Cvajner ◽  
Giuseppe Sciortino

While there are numerous research efforts, supported by substantial budgets, to study the process of irregular border crossing, there is very little sustained research on how irregular migrants live for remarkable spells of time in social contexts where they lack any certified public identity. This leads to a paradoxical situation. We know that sizeable irregular migration flows cross the borders of all developed countries (as well as some developing ones). But we know very little of how, once entered, these migrants becomes immigrants, how they achieve the minimal goals of making an income, finding a place to sleep, avoiding being caught by the police and, not infrequently, attaining some degree of security and self-respect.


Author(s):  
Nadine El-Enany ◽  
Eiko R. Thielemann

Forced migrations, as well as the related issues of refugees and asylum, profoundly impact the relationship between the countries of origin and the countries of destination. Traditionally, the essential quality of a refugee was seen to be their presence outside of their own country as a result of political persecution. However, the historical evolution of the definition of a refugee has gradually become more restricted and defined. Commentators have challenged the current refugee protection regime along two principal lines. The first is idealist in nature and entails the argument that the refugee definition as contained in the 1951 Refugee Convention is not sufficiently broad and thus fails to protect all those individuals deserving of protection. The second line of argument is a realist one, taking a more pragmatic approach in addressing the insufficiencies of the Convention. Its advocates emphasize the importance of making refugee protection requirements more palatable to states, the actors upon which we rely to provide refugees with protection. With regard to the question of how to design more effective burden-sharing institutions, the literature has traditionally focused on finding ways to equalize refugee responsibilities directly by seeking to equalize the number of asylum seekers and refugees that states have to deal with.


Refuge ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Levitan ◽  
Esra Kaytaz ◽  
Oktay Durukan

 As European countries bordering the Mediterranean have introduced increasingly harsh measures to stem the flow of irregular migration across their frontiers, Turkey has become one of the main crossroads for flows of migration from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East into Europe.At the same time, as part of Turkey’s accession process, the European Union has stepped up pressure on Turkey to prevent the movement of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees into Europe.As a result of Turkey’s efforts to limit irregular migration flows, thousands of foreign nation­als without travel documents, refugees among them, are detained while attempting to either enter or exit the coun­try illegally.They are primarily held in detention centres, which are officially referred to as “foreigners’ guesthouses.” Turkey’s Ministry of Interior (MOI) severely limits access to detainees in these facilities by international and domestic NGOs and advocates.Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Turkey (HCA), a leading human rights NGO based in Istanbul, has provided legal aid to refugees since 2004 through its Refugee Advocacy and Support Program.Based on inter­views conducted by HCA with forty refugees from seventeen countries, this report examines refugees’ access to proced­ural rights in detention, as well as conditions in “foreigners’ guesthouses.” It identifies gaps between reported practice and standards of treatment set forth in Turkish legislation and international guidelines on detention.


2008 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Cuttitta

Regular immigration to Italy is based on a quota system setting annual ceilings to legal entries. Reserved shares are granted to single countries or categories of countries. Reserved shares have been increased; they are used as an incentive to obtain the cooperation of countries of origin in stemming irregular migration flows. The total quota of regular immigration has gradually increased too. Still, it does not fully respond to the growing demand of foreign workers on the labour market, and quotas seem to be used as crypto-regularisations rather than as an instrument for regulating legal entries.


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