The Politics of Care and Control: Governmentality in Turkey’s Evolving Border Policy with the Reflections from Turkey-EU Borders

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper explores the evolving nature of Turkey’s border policy, focusing on the increasing centralization and securitization of border control from 2011 to 2024. It addresses how the country’s border management has changed and examines what factors have become significant for the evolution of national border management that displays the patterns of continuity and change. It is argued that while the 2011–2015 period may have seemed like a multi-level governance system due to largely a temporary arrangement driven by the crisis and involvement of various non-state actors since 2016, Turkey’s border management has transitioned into a governmentality-driven system that uses care to legitimise control, with limited genuine governance shifts during the crisis. The paper contributes to understanding how Turkey navigates the dual imperatives of care and control in its border policy. Through longitudinal fieldwork conducted at key sea and land border-crossing points in Greece (Edirne and Izmir) through Europe and Ankara, where the high-level bureaucracy takes place, during three key periods (2010–2013, 2018–2019, and 2024), the findings suggest that Turkey’s border policy not only responds to external pressures but also increasingly prioritizes internal security through the centralization of border control functions and developing its national mechanism.