Kins, distant workers, diasporas: constructing Turkey's transnational members abroad

Abstract

This paper analyzes the politics of the Turkish state about Turks abroad as a process of defining the status of and constructing the perceptions about its transnational members. Falling back on transnationalism and diaspora studies, it aims to bring together the policies of the Turkish state regarding emigrants and co-ethnics who have been stranded during the collapse of the empire from which the modern state emerged. From the point of view of the sending state/external homeland, it compares the different trajectories and policies which have been put in place during different periods, and traces the parallel actions which have been taken over the last two decades regarding both constellations. The paper also investigates the way in which the extra-territorial membership is constructed and definedby putting emphasis on its fluidity over time as a result of endogenous and exogenous factors.