TURKISH MIGRATION POLICY, edited by Ibrahim Sirkeci and Barbara Pusch, aims to shed light on changes in migration policy, determinants beneath these changes, and practical implications for movers and non-movers in Turkey. Nevertheless, one should note that Turkey has only recently faced mass immigration and the number of foreign born has more than doubled in less than five years. Such sudden change in population composition warrants policy adjustments and reviews. Policy shift from "exporting excess labour" in the 1960s and 1970s to immigrant integration today is a drastic but necessary one. Nevertheless, Turkish migration policy is still far from settled as several chapters in this book point out. Despite the exemplary humanitarian engagement in admitting Syrians, Turkey is still at the bottom of the league table of favourable integration policies with an overall score of 25 out of 100. Turkish migration policy is likely to be adjusted further in response to the continuing immigration.
About the Author: Ibrahim Sirkeci is Ria Professor of Transnational Studies and Marketing and the Director of the Regent's Centre for Transnational Studies (RCTS) at Regent's University London (UK). He is a graduate of the University of Sheffield (PhD) and Bilkent University (BA). Prior to joining Regent's University London, Sirkeci had worked at the University of Bristol. His main areas of expertise are human mobility, labour markets, remittances, transnational marketing and consumers and segmentation. He is the editor of several journals including Migration Letters and Göç Dergisi. His recent books include Turkish Migration, Identity and Integration (TPLondon, 2015 with B. D. Seker, A. Caglar), Family and Human Capital in Turkish Migration (TPLondon, 2015 with N. Milewski, M. Yucesahin, A. Rolls), Migration and Remittances during the Global Financial Crisis and Beyond (World Bank, 2012 with J. Cohen and D. Ratha), and Cultures of Migration, the global nature of contemporary mobility (University of Texas Press, 2011 with J. Cohen). He has been chairing the Turkish Migration Conferences since 2012. Sirkeci can be contacted at www.sirkeci.co.uk Barbara Pusch studied Sociology, Turkology, Philosophy, and Ethnology at the University of Vienna. She received her PhD at the University of Vienna with a dissertation on the Green movement in Turkey and then went on to complete various projects on women and Islam in Turkey. She now concentrates on migration studies as her main research topic and has been involved in several international projects on migration to and through Turkey. Most recently, as a Mercator-IPC Fellow, she has focused on Turkey as a target country for migration and Turkish migration law. Since November 2015, she works as a Research Assistant to the Director at the Orient-Institut Istanbul.