Turkey’s Diasporas: Turkey’s Diaspora Governance Policies from the Past to the Present

This book examines Turkey’s evolving diaspora policies, analysing how the state engages, controls, and mobilizes its overseas communities as tools of diplomacy and nation-building. Through an interdisciplinary lens, it highlights the political, ideological, and cultural motivations driving Turkey’s approach, particularly under the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) influence.

In recent decades, Turkey’s approach to its diaspora has undergone a dramatic transformation. From viewing its emigrants as ＂guest workers＂ in the 1960s to deploying sophisticated diaspora engagement policies today, Turkey’s approach mirrors larger trends in international migration politics. This book explores Turkey’s unique and complex diaspora policies, illuminating how they blend diplomatic outreach with transnational control. With insights into the history and evolution of Turkish diaspora governance, the book analyses key questions:

• What motivates Turkey’s outreach efforts?
• How have recent shifts under the President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP influenced its strategies?
• And what role do nationalism and identity play in shaping these policies?

The book brings together pioneering studies on Turkey’s dynamic relationship with its emigrants, blending history, politics, and sociology to shed light on how diaspora governance has become a critical tool of statecraft. This compelling exploration is essential for understanding the impacts of state-led diaspora engagement on transnational identities and relations in a globalized world. It was originally published as a special issue of Middle East Critique.

Bahar Baser is Professor of Political Science and International Relations, at Durham University’s School of Government and International Affairs. Previously, she was Associate Professor at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University where she led the ＂Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation Research Group＂. She is an expert in the area of diaspora studies, peacebuilding and conflict transformation, with a regional focus on the Middle East.

Dr. Ahmet Erdi Öztürk is Reader of politics and international relations at London Metropolitan University. He also worked as Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellow at Coventry University in the UK and GIGA in Germany (between 2021-2023). He is the author of more than 40 peer-review journal articles, author, co-author, editor and co-editor of 8 books. Dr. Ozturk is the winner of 2021 London Metropolitan University Outstanding Early Career Researcher, 2022 ISA’s ENMISA Emerging Scholar Award and 2023 ISA’s REL Section Emerging Scholar Award.

Hakkı Taş is Research Fellow at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Hamburg. His research interests include populism, diasporas, and identity politics, with a special focus on the Middle East. Before his appointment at GIGA, Taş held researcher or teaching positions at Yale University, American University in Cairo, Ipek University, the Swedish Defence University, and the University of Bremen. His peer-reviewed articles have appeared in journals including Comparative Studies in Society and History, The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, PS: Political Science and Politics, and Democratization.