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Öztürk, Ahmet Erdi, Tas, Hakki and Baser, Bahar (2022) Guest editors’ introduction: Turkey’s diaspora governance policies from the past to the present. Middle East Critique, 31 (4). pp. 303-309. ISSN 1943-6149
Diasporas have become a topic of academic and political discussion and interest since 2000. Until recently, most diaspora research has focused on the ways the states in the Global North ‘receive’ outsiders but has devoted limited scrutiny to the role of sending states in shaping opportunity structures abroad. The recently growing literature on diaspora politics draw our attention to the rise of state-led diaspora engagement initiatives which aim at cultivating, (re)building, (re)shaping and (de/re)mobilizing diasporas. Currently, more than one hundred states have established forms of diaspora engagement policies and institutions, with a variety of motivations.2 Scholars try to understand the development of diaspora-engagement policies cultivated by political actors in the homeland from various disciplines including international relations, political science and sociology.3 How these policies are cultivated and transformed through time4 and their multi-tiered nature5 are of interest to those who try to understand the politics of diaspora governance. What political and ideological motivations drive home states to develop diaspora governance policies? Are home states after financial gains when it comes to engaging with their diasporas? How do they form structures to promote diaspora diplomacy? While there is an emerging literature that tries to unpack the triadic relationship among home and host states and diasporas, there is still so much to discover in terms of how state sovereignty, nation-building and citizenship come into play in the transnational space in the light of the ever-changing dynamics in a globalised world.
This special issue is the outcome of a one-day workshop, ‘Turkey’s Diaspora Governance Policies from the Past to the Present,’ held on May 21, 2021 and sponsored by the Centre for Peace, Trust and Social Relations at Coventry University, London Metropolitan University, and the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA). The workshop brought together prominent scholars in the field who have been working on Turkish migration for decades as well as early career academics who are focusing on the most contemporary issues. The special issue aims to contribute to the theoretical debates in transnationalism and diaspora studies by offering an in-depth understanding of a case study that addresses a variety of issues surrounding diaspora politics.
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial 4.0.
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