Migration Emergencies and Multi-Level Governance at the EU–Turkey Border

Abstract

Since 2011, political, social, environmental, and economic instability in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has sparked large transnational population movements that have stressed existing state and non-state migration management systems to capacity. This has created opportunities for new actors-including national and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs), intergovernmental organisations (IGOs), and even regional and municipal administrations-to assume roles traditionally performed by national governments. Against this background, this paper seeks to shed light on recent changes in Turkey's border governance, particularly concerning its relationship to the European Union (EU). The paper focuses on the roles of and interaction between various local, international and supranational actors (both state and non-state). Drawing on concepts of governance, the paper critically analyses Turkey's approach to border management since 2011. It argues that the EU and the Syrian mass migration are the most significant forces of change in Turkey's border management, which seems to have become more inclusive and open to different actors such as NGOs or IGOs, and Turkish state actors exclusively assume a control function, while NGOs and IGOs are assigned a care function. It is informed by fieldwork conducted between July and November 2018 at the main sea border-crossing points of Turkey's Mediterranean coast.

A crisis mode in migration governance: comparative and analytical insights

“…The increased involvement of nongovernmental actors in crisis governance is common across all cases, but their potential to resist power hierarchies or create counter-narratives depends on their resources and the socio-political context on the one hand, sector on the other. (Gökalp Aras, 2020;Sahin Mencutek, 2021). While relations between state and non-governmental actors tend to be smoother in sectors like reception and integration in all counties, the border control and protection sector seems more concerning for actor relations, particularly for frontline countries, as observed in criminalizing of humanitarian actors in Italy or stopping the UNHCR's registration activities in Lebanon.…”