The Challenges of Afghan Migrants in Türkiye

Abstract

Migration of an individual or a group occurs as a result of aggravating socio-economical, politic or security-based conditions. Migration isn’t simply a pickup-and-go process, but it comes with some challenges and opportunities for both migrants and relevant countries. Ongoing war and conflicts for five decades in Afghanistan have forced Afghans to emigrate at various times. But this unplanned migration movements have seemed to create much more challenges than opportunities because of the large number of Afghan population settling down illegally in the host countries, including Türkiye. The daunting economic consequences of the global Covid-19 pandemy in Türkiye as well as increasing massive surge of Afghan asylum seekers have brought about social disturbance and several problems in some local cities, which forced the government to have taken special precautions about outlawed asylum seekers in order to calm down the public reaction and to ensure the social stability. Furthermore, Afghans, who constitute the largest part of the total population of migrant community in Türkiye, have faced some risks and challenges both on the way of, and after, the migration -such as, security, deportation and so on. Therefore, this article aims at making some new contribution about migration studies by throwing light on the painful circumstances of the displaced Afghans, especially after the Taliban took over the power in the country.