Migration Policies of Sending Countries: Perspectives on the Turkish Experience

Abstract

During the 1960s and early 1970s, Turkey participated heavily in the process of labor migration from the Mediterranean basin to Western Europe. In addition to the policy preferences of advanced industrial European states and the demand for jobs in Europe by large numbers of Turks, Turkey's migration policies played a significant role in the expansion of the migratory flow. Turkish policymakers sought to use labor migration abroad to fulfill several objectives such as reducing unemployment and increasing the volume of foreign-exchange reserves through remittances. The migration of Turkish workers to Western Europe produced some significant results concerning these primary objectives. The policy of exporting workers, however, has also had important unintended consequences and problems for Turkey.

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References

1. The approximate distribution in the early 1980s is as follows: West Germany, 1.55 million; the Netherlands, 150,000; France, 135,000; Belgium, 64,000; Austria, 65,000; Switzerland, 36,000; Sweden, 18,000; Denmark, 17,000; and Norway, 2700. At present, there are also more than 200,000 Turkish migrant workers in the Arab countries, with the largest concentrations in Libya—106,000—and Saudi Arabia—53,000.

2. Suzanne Paine , Exporting Workers: The Turkish Case (London: Cambridge University Press, 1974), pp. 71-89.

3. For a discussion of the results of several surveys, see ibid., pp. 87-88, 200.

4. These observations are based on my research among Turkish migrants in the Danish city of Aarhus. The study was conducted between 1982 and 1984; it was funded by a grant from the Danish Social Science Research Council.

5. Aristide R. Zolberg , “International Migration Policies in a Changing World,” in Human Migration: Patterns and Policies, ed. William H. McNeill and Ruth S. Adams (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978), p. 243.

6. The term “exporting workers” is borrowed from the title of Paine's Exporting Workers.

7. Sefik Alp Bahadir , “Turkey and the Turks in Germany,” Aussenpolitik (First quarter 1979), p. 105.

8. Turkey, State Planning Organization , Second Five Year Development Plan 1968-1972 (Ankara: State Planning Organization, 1969), p. 134.

9. For the perspectives of policymakers on these issues, see Nermin Abadan-Unat et al. , eds., Migration and Development, (Ankara: Ajans-Turk Press, 1975).

10.

10. This is suggested in a study based on a survey of Turkish policy officials; see Ned Levine , “Antiurbanization: An Implicit Development Policy in Turkey,” Journal of Developing Areas (July 1980).

11.

11. Paine , Exporting Workers, p. 106.

12.

12. William Hale , The Political and Economic Development of Modern Turkey (London: Croom Helm, 1981), p. 232.

13.

13. Ray C. Rist , Guestworkers in Germany: The Prospects for Pluralism (New York: Praeger, 1978), p. 101.

14.

14. Rosemarie Rogers , “Incentives to Return: Patterns of Policies and Migrants' Responses,” in Global Trends in Migration: Theory and Research on International Population Movements, ed. M. Kritz et al. (New York: Center for Migration Studies, 1981), p. 340.

15.

15. See Czarina Wilpert , “Returning and Remaining: Return among Turkish Migrants in Germany,” in The Politics of Return: International Return Migration in Europe, ed. Daniel Kubat (Rome: Centro studi emigrazione, 1984), pp. 101-112.

16.

16. Zolberg , “International Migration Policies,” p. 279.