Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T00:37:29.020Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Forced migration, citizenship, and space: the case of Syrian Kurdish refugees in İstanbul

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2016

Gülay Kılıçaslan
Gülay Kılıçaslan*
Affiliation:
York University, Department of Sociology, 4700 Keele St, Toronto, Ontario, M3J 1P3, Canada, [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The influx of hundreds of thousands of people from Syria to Turkey, especially into major cities such as İstanbul, together with the Turkish government’s policies towards Syrian refugees, has led to various changes in urban spaces. This article has a twofold objective: it examines and discusses the everyday lives of these refugees with regards to the processes and mechanisms of their exclusion and inclusion in İstanbul, while employing a multiscalar analysis of migration in terms of combining nation-state policies of migration, citizenship, space, and the concept of the “right to the city.” Relying upon interviews and participant observation in the Kanarya and Bayramtepe neighborhoods of İstanbul between 2011 and 2015, I outline the ways in which Syrian Kurdish refugees have been actively transforming İstanbul’s peripheries through their interactions with the Kurds who were forcibly displaced from their rural homes in southeastern Turkey in the 1990s.

Keywords

Forced migrationcitizenshipright to the citySyrian Kurdish refugeesinternally displaced Kurds.
Type
Articles
Information
New Perspectives on Turkey , Volume 54: Special Issue on Precarious Lives and Syrian Refugees in Turkey , May 2016 , pp. 77 - 95
Copyright
© New Perspectives on Turkey and Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Author’s Note: Earlier versions of this article were presented in İstanbul and Toronto in 2015 and 2016. I am greatly indebted to all those who helped me to think through these issues. I especially thank Mine Eder, Sardar Saadi, Shahrzad Mojab, and Shoshana Fine for their constructive comments, suggestions, and support. I am also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their invaluable insights and comments.

References

Arapoglou, Vassilis P. “Diversity, Inequality and Urban Change.” European Urban and Regional Studies 19, no. 3 (July 2012): 223–237. doi:10.1177/0969776412451800.Google Scholar
Barut, Mehmet. Zorunlu Göçe Maruz Kalan Kürt Kökenli TC Vatandaşlarının Göç Öncesi ve Göç Sonrası Sosyo Ekonomik, Sosyo Kültürel Durumları, Askeri Çatışma ve Gerginlik Politikaları Sonucu Meydana Gelen Göçün Ortaya Çıkardığı Sorunlar ve Göç Mağduru Ailelerin Geriye Dönüş Eğilimlerinin Araştırılması ve Çözüm Önerileri. Unpublished report. İstanbul: Göç-Der, 2001.Google Scholar
Berg, Mette Louise and Sigona, Nando. “Ethnography, Diversity and Urban Space.” Identities 20, no. 4 (2013): 347–360. doi:10.1080/1070289X.2013.822382.Google Scholar
Buğra, Ayşe and Keyder, Çağlar. New Poverty and the Changing Welfare Regime of Turkey. Ankara: United Nations Development Programme, 2003.Google Scholar
Coutin, Susan Bibler. Legalizing Moves: Salvadoran Immigrants’ Struggle for U.S. Residency. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000.Google Scholar
De Genova, Nicholas P. “Migrant ‘Illegality’ and Deportability in Everyday Life.” Annual Review of Anthropology 31 (2002): 419–447. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.31.040402.085432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De la Rocha, Mercedes González. The Resources of Poverty: Women and Survival in a Mexican City. Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1994.Google Scholar
Erder, Sema. Kentsel Gerilim: Enformel İlişki Ağları Alan Araştırması. Ankara: Um:ag, 1997.Google Scholar
Glick Schiller, Nina and Çağlar, Ayşe. “Towards a Comparative Theory of Locality in Migration Studies: Migrant Incorporation and City Scale.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 35, no. 2 (2009): 177–202. doi:10.1080/13691830802586179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hacettepe Üniversitesi Nüfus Etütleri Enstitüsü (HÜNEE). Türkiye Göç ve Yerinden Olmuş Nüfus Araştırması. Ankara: Hacettepe Üniversitesi Nüfus Etütleri Enstitüsü, 2006. Accessed on April 23, 2016. http://www.hips.hacettepe.edu.tr/tgyona/TGYONA_rapor.pdf.Google Scholar
Ineli-Ciger, Meltem. “Implications of the New Turkish Law on Foreigners and International Protection and Regulation No. 29153 on Temporary Protection for Syrians Seeking Protection in Turkey.” Oxford Monitor of Forced Migration 4, no. 2 (2015): 28–36.Google Scholar
Isin, Engin F. “Introduction: Democracy, Citizenship and the City.” In Democracy, Citizenship and the Global City. Edited by Engin F. Isin. London: Routledge, 2000. 1–22.Google Scholar
Kalandides, Ares and Vaiou, Dina. “‘Ethnic’ Neighbourhoods? Practices of Belonging and Claims to the City.” European Urban and Regional Studies 0969776412438328. doi:10.1177/0969776412438328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keyder, Çağlar. “Globalization and Social Exclusion in İstanbul.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 29, no. 1 (March 2005): 124–134. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2427.2005.00574.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kılıçaslan, Gülay . Generational Differences in Political Mobilization among Kurdish Forced Migrants: The Case of İstanbul’s Kanarya Mahallesi.” In The Kurdish Issue in Turkey: A Spatial Perspective. Edited by Zeynep Gambetti and Joost Jongerden. Oxon and New York: Routledge, 2015. 157–184.Google Scholar
KONDA. Perceptions and Expectations in the Kurdish Issue. İstanbul: İletişimYayınları, 2011.Google Scholar
Lefebvre, Henri. Writings on Cities. Edited and translated by Eleonore Kofman and Elizabeth Labas. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996.Google Scholar
Leitner, Helga and Ehrkamp, Patricia. “Transnationalism and Migrants’ Imaginings of Citizenship.” Environment and Planning A 38, no. 9 (September 2006): 1615–1632. doi:10.1068/a37409.Google Scholar
Massey, Doreen, Allen, John, and Pile, Steve, eds. City Worlds. London and New York: Routledge, 1999.Google Scholar
Portes, Alejandro and Bach, Robert L.. Latin Journey: Cuban and Mexican Immigrants in the United States. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Purcell, Mark. “Citizenship and the Right to the Global City: Reimagining the Capitalist World Order.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 27, no. 3 (September 2003): 564–590. doi:10.1111/1468-2427.00467.Google Scholar
Ruddick, Susan. “Constructing Difference in Public Spaces: Race, Class, and Gender as Interlocking Systems.” Urban Geography 17, no. 2 (1996): 132–151. doi:10.2747/0272-3638.17.2.132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). “Syria Regional Refugee Response: Turkey.” http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/country.php?id=224.Google Scholar
Yılmaz, Halim. "Türkiye’de Suriyeli Mülteciler, İstanbul Örneği: Tespitler, İhtiyaçlar ve Öneriler." İstanbul: MAZLUMDER, 2013.Google Scholar
Yörük, Erdem. “Welfare Provision as Political Containment: The Politics of Social Assistance and the Kurdish Conflict in Turkey.” Politics & Society 40, no. 4 (December 2012): 517–547. doi:10.1177/0032329212461130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yükseker, Deniz. “Internal Displacement and Social Exclusion: Problems Encountered by Internally Displaced Persons in the Provinces of İstanbul and Diyarbakır.” In Coming to Terms with Forced Migration: Post-Displacement Restitution of Citizenship Rights in Turkey. Edited by Elif Kalaycıoğlu and Josee Lavoie. Translated by Leyla Tonguç Basmacı. İstanbul: TESEV, 2006. 257–276.Google Scholar