‘Making sense’ of Turkey’s refugee policy: The case of the Directorate General of Migration Management

Abstract

Abstract Based on interview data gathered in 2019 and 2020, this article considers the various approaches through which employees of Turkey’s Directorate General of Migration Management have interpreted and implemented state policy towards the country’s Syrian refugees. It uses the work of Dvora Yanow as a vantage point from which to understand initially how civil servants based in three cities have tried to ‘make sense’ of these policies and the highly dynamic context in which they are working. It then goes on to look at how her work might help us to reveal the ways in which processes of naming, selecting, and categorising may also play a role in making sense of—and adapting—national policy. Finally, we examine two examples of how our respondents elaborated upon these sense-making efforts through the use of storytelling.