Home and Host Country Policy Interaction in the Making of Turkey’s Diasporas

Abstract

: Recent accounts in diaspora studies have advanced our understanding of various political, social and economic transnational phenomena and processes that take place between the home state and the diaspora. However, there is a growing trend in the literature that focuses on home-state diaspora relations at the expense of the core tenant of the transnationalism framework, namely the assumption that immigrant transborder politics and connections span various dynamics that involve both the home and the host country. In this article, I argue that we must revisit calls for simultaneity and turn to the interaction of policies between the home and host state when analyzing diaspora making and shaping processes. To demonstrate my argument, I analyze historical policy interactions between Turkey’s diaspora policy and Germany’s immigration and integration policy and show how interactive dynamics between the home and host country have simultaneously shaped politics in Turkey’s diasporas over time.