Demographic mobility and Turkey: migration experiences and government responses

Abstract

Turkey's transformation during the course of the twentieth century into a nation of all kinds of migration is one of the most significant features of its history. Currently migration, both internal and international, is of increasing local and global importance. We can conclude that everything depends on implementing an integrated and consistent policy designed to govern and properly manage migration. The essentials for this management are orderliness, protection, integration, and cooperation. Turkey and other countries need to (1) develop a set of measures to manage migration in an orderly manner, (2) provide an appropriate capability for protection and for dealing with disorderly movements, (3) provide an environment conducive to integration, and (4) engage in dialogue and cooperation with all involved parties and countries. If a management-based pragmatism directs all three main actors of any migration process-sending and receiving (or transit) units or countries, and migrants-there are promising approaches to the dilemma of migration. A comprehensive management strategy, which is holistic and proactive rather than partial and reactive, appears to offer an integrated set of solutions to the complex sets of problems posed by migration movements. Whatever the answer to the dilemmas of migration between countries or within a country, there are consequences and responsibilities for the governments of sending, transiting, and receiving areas or countries, for the migrants and their families, and for the international community and its representative bodies.