Attachments
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 KEY FINDINGS
1 Refugee mobility in Türkiye has seemingly decreased over time. With every passing year, refugees have become more entrenched. The Turkish government has attempted to address this through rules seeking to dilute foreigner populations in key areas, particularly as migrant numbers grow and refugees have children. Migrants, once in Türkiye, often change addresses but generally travel shorter distances for work than comparable Turkish nationals.
2 Refugee mobility moves along several well-established corridors, mostly from south-east to north-west Türkiye.
Local flows also exist, from rural to urban areas. Movements within the Istanbul metropolitan area, which represents the largest concentration of migrants in Türkiye, have their own complicated dynamics.
3 Refugee mobility is mostly determined by economic conditions. Political attitudes, local social cohesion, legal hurdles and demographics are all significant but secondary factors. Pull factors, such as job availability and higher incomes, are stronger than economic push factors.
4 Of the secondary influences on refugee movement, it is difficult to determine the relative strength of various push and pull factors. Social cohesion is frequently listed as highly important.
5 Different nationalities have different mobility dynamics. These are determined through both complex legal status rules relating to different groups and methods of entry to Türkiye.
6 Difficulties in tracking individual households’ addresses have made it problematic to assess address mobility.
When refugees change their address, documenting refugees’ location and movement, and thus mobility modelling, often becomes more challenging.
7 COVID-19-related lockdowns prevented movement and increased the tendency of migrants to be less mobile than their Turkish counterparts. Since the pandemic, refugee mobility has resumed, but due to the May 2023 elections the political environment has altered the government’s method of refugee crisis management. This change has led to a rise in returns to Syria and to self-imposed mobility limitations among refugees who stay in Türkiye in order to protect their safety.
8 In line with these developments, Türkiye’s Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi; AKP) gov-ernment has implemented additional policies to reduce refugees’ mobility and concentrate refugees in certain areas while promoting refugee return to Syria. This has forced more refugees to seek ways to transit to European countries before being sent back to Syria, leading to problems with Europe, especially Greece. The situation has also led to increasing humanitarian problems at the borders of the country. Refugee returns are a contentious and growing issue, well documented by various non-governmental organizations (NGOs).