Refugees' onward migration decisions and the eu-turkey deal
- Autores: Muzaffer Sevda Tunaboylu
- Directores de la Tesis: John Rossman Palmer (dir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Pompeu Fabra ( España ) en 2021
- Idioma: español
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Annelies Zoomers (presid.), Evren Yalaz Ozen (secret.), Didem Daniş (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias Políticas y Sociales por la Universidad Pompeu Fabra
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: TDX
- Resumen
Adopting a bottom-up approach, and taking the EU‒Turkey deal as a case study, this Ph.D. thesis provides empirical evidence about the impact of externalisation policies on refugees’ daily lives and on their onward migration decisions.
Rationale & Theoretical Process:
In 2015, over one million refugees arrived to Europe, majority of them travelled from Turkey to Europe via the Greek Islands. In response, Turkey and EU signed a statement also known as -the EU-Turkey deal- in March 2016. The aim of the deal was to curb irregular migration to Europe by i. improving border control and return of those who arrived to Greece via irregular ways to Turkey and ii. improving conditions for refugees in Turkey through the foreign humanitarian investment by EU. Such policy tools such as bilateral deals, containment and returns are increasingly used by immigration nations (FitzGerald, 2019). At the same time, critics of government policies have questioned the effectiveness of such policies in deterring irregular migration (Massey et al., 2016; Czaika and de Haas, 2013; Crawley, 2010) as well as highlighting the harm these policies inflict on refugees (FitzGerald, 2019). This Ph.D. project came to life within this context of, on the one hand, a global tendency of adopting harsher migration and asylum policies and, on the other hand, mounting evidence both of the harm caused by such policies and of their ineffectiveness. Thus, this thesis contributes to this debate by focusing on the perspective of the refugees themselves in the study of the impact of externalisation policies, both within the academic debate on forced migration and within policy making.
The thesis is interdisciplinary based on the careful consideration of several theories, concepts and research methods that come from a wide range of disciplines, including geography, sociology, political sciences and development studies.
Overview of the Sections Chapter 1 briefly introduces the topic and the conceptual and contextual background. Chapter 2 focuses on the daily experiences and coping strategies of those who have been contained on the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios. Chapter 3 explores the onward migration aspirations of Syrian men with precarious legal status living in Istanbul. Chapter 4 analyses the impact of humanitarian aid on Syrian refugees’ aspirations to move on from Turkey. And finally, Chapter 5 summaries the contributions and limitations of the Ph.D. thesis as well as providing pathways for future research.
Main Conclusions The main aim of this Ph.D. thesis has been to document and describe the current living conditions of refugees in Turkey and Greece who are affected by EU externalisation policies, specifically the EU–Turkey deal. Whereas refugees are generally the targets of policies that they have no ability to shape, this thesis centres its discussion around their perspective. In Chapter 2, we saw that despite structural conditions, refugees exercised a degree of agency by findings coping strategies and circumventing and negotiating ever changing regulations. Even if the refugee experience is marked by compulsion, those living as refugees may participate in the shaping of outcomes and conditions in their lives while also negotiating new forms of identity and membership. In Chapter 3, we saw that despite the legal precarious, young Syrian refugee men left their registered provinces even though this has put them at risk of detention and deportation. Once they arrived to Istanbul, they were able to find accommodation and work through the informal arrival infrastructures, existing and new social networks between established migrant communities and new comers. In Chapter 4, we saw that development aid contrary to its stated goal did not decrease the aspirations of Syrian refugees who want to move on from Turkey and their aspirations were shaped by a complex set of factors, including living conditions, access to employment, experience of insecurity as well as long term prospects.
