Identity and Inclusion among Migrants and Host Community Members in Turkey

• In Event: The Politics of Refugee and Migrant Admission and Integration in Turkey

Abstract

This project asks: What factors determine whether an individual is perceived to be a member of a nation? Do these factors also determine whether this individual is perceived to be a member of the state? Are nation defining attributes more likely to be based on inherited characteristics than state defining attributes? And do perceptions about membership in nation and state differ depending on whether the perciever has secure or insecure nation and state memberships?

This project considers these questions in the context of Turkey, a country that has experienced massive recent in-migration of refugees from the Syrian civil war. Many of these Syrian refugees do not have safe options to return to Syria, raising the salience of if, when, and how they become members of the Turkish nation and state. Employing a conjoint experiment, embedded in a probability sample drawn from neighborhoods in Adana, Turkey (n=5000, approximately evenly split between Turkish hosts and Syrian migrants), we explore how different attributes–some fixed at birth and others changeable to varying degrees–shape inclusion in “Turkish" identity.


The core expectation is that Turkish identity is rooted primarily in ascriptive, or inherited, characteristics as opposed to those an individual can change after birth, including formal (state-granted) citizenship status. In contrast, citizenship status and other mutable attributes will shape perceptions about participation in the state (rights to live in it and to take part in its governance processes). These outcomes are further influenced by differing backgrounds of individuals and varying perceptions of a need for group boundary maintenance. Those who have lengthier ties to the Turkish nation-state (themselves are born in Turkey, have parents and/or grandparents born in Turkey) or who perceive the influx of Syrians as a social, economic, or security threat to Turkey will police Turkish identity boundaries by insisting upon immutable characteristics and assigning mutable factors less influence. For those who are seeking entry and belonging into Turkish identity groups (Syrians), mutable factors will play a strong role in addition to immutable factors in determining "Turkishness".

The experiment manipulates nine attributes. Each respondent evaluates three profiles, one at a time (it is a single-profile ratings based, not a forced-choice experiment). The central dependent variable asks, on a scale of 1 to 10, how strongly the respondent would identify the described individual as Turkish. A second dependent variable asks them to guess the main identity of the individual (without prompting national identities). The respondent is then asked to evaluate the extent to which the individual would conform with the social customs and obligations of Turkish society and the extent to which the individual is loyal to Turkey. These test mechanisms through which identity attributes might operate. After repeating the profile, the respondent is then asked to say whether the hypothetical person should be allowed to stay in Turkey, whether he/she should be allowed to vote, and whether he/she should have permanent citizenship.

Authors

• Karen E. Ferree, University of California, San Diego

• Kristen Kao, University of Gothenburg