This paper contributes to the discussions on the nexus between migration and development by assessing the effects of remittances on human development. We do so first through a quantitative approach, and second, by elaborating the findings of our quantitative analysis within a broader theoretical and policy framework. By using OLS, we measure the impact of remittances on human development and compare it with the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) and official development assistance (ODA). The findings indicate that remittances have a positive correlation with the human development level and are indeed an effective way to enhance human development in countries with medium income, especially in the medium run. We demonstrate that remittances show divergent developmental effects in countries with different government approaches to migration. In the second part of the paper, we discuss different hypotheses about the causes of the problems that our findings reveal and compare different actual policy solutions found in the developing world. We argue that remittances have the most positive effect in terms of boosting human development in the countries where the state perceives migration as an effective labour export strategy.

No abstract

Peering through a lens of disasters and inequalities, this article measures the financial impacts of Covid‐19 on citizens and refugee communities in Turkey during a relatively early phase of the global pandemic. Our data comes from an online survey (N = 1749) conducted simultaneously with Turkish citizens and Syrian refugees living in Turkey, followed by in‐depth online interviews with Syrian refugees. Our findings indicate that the initial Covid‐19 measures had a higher financial impact on Syrians than on citizens when controlled for employment, wealth, and education, among other variables. In line with the literature, our research confirms that disasters’ socio‐economic effects disproportionally burden minority communities. We additionally discuss how Covid‐19 measures have significantly accelerated effects on refugees compared to the local population, mainly due to the structural and policy context within which forcibly displaced Syrians have been received in Turkey.

No abstract

The article highlights international dimensions of the emergence and transformation of migration policies in Turkey from the early 2000s onwards, including the context of the Syrian displacement, which made Turkey the top refugee hosting country in the world. While the transformation of migration governance in Turkey has widely been discussed, the effects of externalization on Turkey have remained focused on foreign policy and Turkey-EU relations. Only recently has the research explored the socio-legal implications of migration governance in terms of the emergence of categorizations leading to differentiated inclusion of migrant groups. The article establishes the historical and conceptual link between technocratic responses to externalization dynamics and the emergence of differentiated legal status. The article argues that measures of externalization brought a technocratic approach to migration governance. As a result, the complex, controversial aspects of the externalization process, such as the production of differentiated legal statuses amongst migrant communities with protection needs, have so far been overshadowed.