New Turkey's new diasporas News from the School of Social Sciences

A one-day workshop, open to all, will explore Turkey’s authoritarian turn under the Erdogan regime.

Date: 17 May 2021

London Met’s Dr Erdi Ozturk is organising a one-day virtual workshop on New Turkey's new Diasporas: Turkey’s Diaspora Governance Policies from Past to Present, together with colleagues from Coventry University and GIGA Hamburg.

Taking place on Friday 21 May 2021, 9am - 3.30pm, the workshop will explore Turkey’s authoritarian turn under the Erdogan regime.

Dr Ozturk explained, “In the period starting approximately after the Gezi Protests in 2013 and accelerated after the attempted coup in 2016, began a new wave of migration from Turkey, mostly towards Europe, as a result of undemocratic practices, economic uncertainties and societal polarization.

“This new wave is the most significant one since the 1990s, where Kurdish asylum seekers flooded Europe as a result of the Turkish-PKK conflict. Turkey’s diaspora communities abroad were already heterogeneous along ethnic/religious/ideological lines, consisting of Turks, Kurds, Alevites, Leftists, and Nationalists, among others.

“This new wave of migration is changing the current profile of Turkey’s diaspora in different countries such as in the UK, Germany, France and United States and bringing new dynamics to the transnational space.”