We have become refugees in our own country': mobilising for refugees in Istanbul

Abstract

This chapter analyses the transformation of the map of two pro-refugee social movement organisations in Istanbul in that period, namely, the Migrant Solidarity Network and Mülteciyim Hemşerim! through an analysis of their frames, repertoires of action, organisational structures, and their composition. The research is based upon a dozen of in-depth interviews conducted with pro-refugee activists and ethnographically inspired participant observation. The chapter employs ‘refugeehood’ as a useful category to understand how the precarious political space in Turkey defined the outlook of the pro-refugee social movement map of the city, by transforming empathy towards refugees into identification with them.