Europeanization and De-Europeanization of Turkish Asylum and Migration Policies

Ayhan Kaya

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-70890-0_14

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter discusses Turkey’s efforts to align and then de-align its migration and asylum policies and laws with the European Union. It argues that the Europeanization of migration and asylum policies and laws corresponds to the internalization of a rights-based approach by state and societal actors in Turkey up until the beginning of the civil war in Syria. The period of the war corresponds to the ascent of the process of de-Europeanization of Turkey that has resulted in the framing of migration and asylum policies at the national and local levels in cultural and religious terms. The chapter argues that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has successfully accommodated the Syrian refugees on the basis of a religious rhetoric called ‘Ansar spirit’.

Highlights

This chapter analyzes Europeanization and de-Europeanization processes in Turkey in its migration and asylum policies since the 1999 Helsinki Summit and, in particular, during the rule of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) since 2002
This route is favored mostly by sub-Saharan African migrants. It has recently been used by Syrians in the aftermath of the European Union (EU)–Turkey (Refugee) Statement, which came into force on 18 March 2016, when Germany and the Netherlands took the lead to make a deal with Turkey to seal off its borders so as not to let refugees travel to the Greek islands
In his speech as foreign minister addressing the ambassadors serving in Ankara in 2011, he represented his ambitions for Turkey as follows: The Middle East and the Balkans have not seen peace and prosperity since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire

Summary

14.1 Introduction

This chapter analyzes Europeanization and de-Europeanization processes in Turkey in its migration and asylum policies since the 1999 Helsinki Summit and, in particular, during the rule of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) since 2002. The Europeanization of migration and asylum policies and laws corresponds with the internalization of a rights-based approach by state and societal actors in Turkey up until the eruption of the Syrian civil war in 2011. The de-Europeanization process can be understood as a process by which migration and asylum policies at the national and local levels in Turkey have been framed in cultural and religious terms. This chapter asserts that the AKP leadership redeployed a path dependent, ethno-cultural and religious logic that underlined the Islamic discourses of ‘guesthood’ and the ‘Ansar spirit’ in receiving and welcoming Syrian refugees—a logic based on the quest to become a ‘soft power’ in the Middle East

Kaya (B)

14.2 Global Context

14.3 A Short History of Turkey’s

14.4 Changing Legislation in the EU Accession Process

14.4.3 Turkey’s Law on Foreigners and International Protection

14.5.1 The Transformation of Turkish Foreign Policy

14.5.2 Turkey’s Ambition as a Soft Power

14.7 Conclusion