Introduction
Turkey’s intent of joining the European Union has a long history. The country applied for Associate Membership in 1959, two years after the formation of the European Economic Community (EEC), which was the precedent of the European Union (EU) formation. The EEC formed an association agreement with Turkey three years later in 1963, which was known as the Ankara Agreement.
Among the goals of the agreement was the formation of a customs union with the EEC before 1995, a step that would facilitate Turkey becoming a full member of the EU. However, there was no definite time set for the country to join the EU (Sulamaa & Widgrén 2).
In 1996, the EU came to an agreement that Turkey would join the EU’s customs union. However, the agreement covers a limited number of goods; it covers only industrial products and processed agricultural goods (Sulamaa & Widgrén 2).
Up to date, the country is yet to become a full member of the EU. The intent of the country to join the EU has been very controversial and has elicited widespread debate among the EU member countries.
Turkey’s migration
Turkey’s migration policy is mainly influenced by several factors; in fact, Turkey has been traditionally known as a country of emigration. During the 1960s and 1970s, many Turkish nationals migrated to other western European countries such as West Germany. However, Turkey has recently become a transit country of other migrants into Europe.
Most of the migrants are irregular and mainly come from the Central Asian countries such as Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan. The country is also a destination of most irregular immigrants from the former soviet countries (Kirisci, 2003).
Germany has by far the largest number of Turkish immigrants. However, after joining the EU the free migration of the Turks into other EU countries is expected to increase the number of Turkish immigrants in Germany to 3.5 million (Flam 15).
The illegal migration from the Caucasus (central Asia and Middle East countries) usually poses a security threat to the residents of both Turkey and the European Union. However, some parties believe that the number of illegal migrants from the Caucasus would reduce if Turkey were allowed into the European (Hug 15).
This would mainly be because Turkey’s integration into the EU would have significant economic benefits to the country, thereby reducing the number of immigrants who illegally migrate to EU in search of better economic opportunities.
The current adjusted per capita income in the EU is far much greater than that of Turkey. In fact, the PPP – adjusted per capita income of the EU – is more than three times than that of the EU. However, economic conditions of entry of the country into the EU will make it catch up with per capita of the EU, albeit after several years (Flam 12).
Upon entry of Turkey into the EU, large-scale immigration from the country is expected to cause several problems in the other EU countries. The EU-15 is of concerned by the possibility that the immigrants will lead to the reduction of wages, increase unemployment and cause social and political tensions in the EU.
This will at the same time, lead to an increase in wage level in Turkey, greatly benefiting the residents (Lejour, de Mooij & Capel 11). However, the effect of the large-scale immigration from Turkey is not expected to have significant impact upon entry of the country into the EU. This is due to the fact that the EU member countries can restrict immigration of citizens of new member countries for a period of up to seven years during the transition period.
In fact, this transition restriction has been applied to other countries that have joined the EU recently with notable examples being Greece, Portugal, and Spain (Flam 13). Similar restrictions are expected to be imposed to the country upon entry into the EU to avoid destabilization of the EU and to help the EU and Turkey in adapting to the conditions.
Turkey’s Migration policies
Turkey is a country that has among the most conservative policies to regulate settlement of foreigners and asylum seekers in the country. Turkey’s Law of settlement passed in 1934 was used by the country to cater for the large number of expulsions of Turks into other countries.
The law facilitated the settlement of people of Turkish background who were spread throughout the central Asia, Middle East, Nazi Germany, and other parts of Europe from settling into the country. In addition, the law facilitated the accelerated citizenship of the people while offering Land or loan to the migrants. A large number of the beneficiaries of this law were Turks who were from Greece and Bulgaria (Tolay-Sargnon 6).
During the Nazi Germany, a large number people who did not have Turkish origin were also given residency as they were fleeing from the persecutions by the Nazis. After the tragic effects of Europe during this period, Turkey adopted the Geneva Convention regarding the status of refugees in 1951.
The Convention indicated that refugees will only be accepted temporarily and would have to come from European countries. By signing the convention, Turkey added “refugees” into the legal category of migrants.
However, with time, the category has included other people due to the development in the world and the increase in the number of people who are moving from one country to another. These include tourists, international students, and temporary migrant workers (Tolay-Sargnon 7).
Turkey now copes with large numbers of migrants of non-Turkish origin whose classification is difficult to make. Most of these migrants are seeking asylum but do not come from Europe, hence cannot befit from being given the refugee status according to the Geneva Convention.
Most of the migrants usually use Turkey a transit point into other European countries, as entry into the country – legally or illegally – is easier compared to the other European countries. However, upon entry into the country, these people find it difficult to enter the European countries. Most of these migrants are petty traders from the former Soviet countries and are considered illegal by the Turkish authorities (Tolay-Sargnon 8s).
The survival of this migrant group is usually left to themselves, the local Turkish population, and many other NGOs who offer services to the migrants. This usually exposes the migrants to abuses and makes most of them to live under very difficult conditions. However, lack of funds for administration of the migrants makes it difficult for the government to arrest, detain, or deport the migrants.
This has mainly facilitated inclusion of clauses such as “temporary guests” in the immigration policy of the country to facilitate settlement of certain groups of people without making legislature changes (Tolay-Sargnon 9). This has made the country not to have any immigration crisis.
However, the large number of illegal immigrant in the country poses problems in the EU-Turkey relations. EU view Turkey’s immigration policy of non-regulation negatively as it creates uncontrollable illegal immigration and human trafficking. Turkey’s immigration policy is generally different from that of the EU, which seeks to control people who are entering the EU (Tolay-Sargnon 11).
The EU is concerned about the immigration policies of Turkey due to several reasons. There has generally been a migrant influx into Turkey. Turkey had to provide shelter to the Iraqi civilians who have fled during the multiple crises, which have happened in the country.
Another reason that has led to the interest of the EU in the immigration policies of the country is due to the increase in the number of illegal immigrants into the EU, most of who are from Turkey or use the country as their transit location into the EU.
The illegal immigrants pose different problems to the EU and thus making it to take measures to address the problems of the immigration policies of Turkey as its integration into the EU is bound to cause different (Tolay-Sargnon 12). The EU mainly uses criticism of the immigration policies and practices.
However, after the recognition of Turkey as a viable candidate for integration into the EU, the EU has used more active and technical cooperation to help in solving the immigration issues which the country faces (Tolay-Sargnon 13). The major aim of the cooperation is to help in the harmonization of the immigration policies of the country with that of the EU, pending integration into the union.
Most of the changes that require technical and administrative changes have already been implemented by the country. However, not all the changes have been effected as some of the changes go against the traditional roles of the country as a sovereign state.
According to Turkey’s National Program for the Acquisition of the Acquis (NPAA) of 2001 and 2003, the government put upon itself an obligation to undertake a wide range of policy reforms on the management of its borders. The policy changes would overhaul the asylum, immigration and visa policies to ensure that they are harmonized with those of the EU.
Through the NPAA, Turkey promised to lift the limitation of entry of migrants into the country. However, Turkey requires that the EU should share the burden (material) of implementation of the policy and protect the country from mass influx of refugees into the country (Kirisci 3). In this case, year 2012 was proposed as the deadline for putting up necessary infrastructure to facilitate the changes before the initiation of the legislative process.
This has facilitated the introduction of several measures to improve Turkey’s asylum policy. However, the reforms undertaken by the country have not been able to form an administrative and legal capacity to handle people from outside Europe who may seek asylum in the country. This has resulted in a deadlock between the EU and Turkey on the issue of asylum (Kirisci 3).
Due to the fact that most of the illegal immigrants into Europe use Turkey as a transit route, the EU has proposed that upon integration of the country into the EU, any illegal immigrant should be deported back to Turkey. Turkey would then have to deport the immigrants to their home countries.
Turkey has vehemently objected to this idea, resulting into major disagreements between the EU and Turkey (Kirisci 4). Moreover, Turkey has introduced several legislative and administrative measures to help in the combat of the illegal transit migration and human trafficking.
The visa policies of Turkey have also drawn wide criticism from the EU due to their flexibility and falling short of the EU standards. The visa policies provide a category of immigrants from certain countries whose residents can stay in the country for a predetermined period, usually three moths, without having to obtain a visa.
The policy also specifies certain countries whose nationals must first obtain visas prior to entering the country. However, the practice which has attracted widespread criticism by the EU member countries is the Turkey’s practice of issuing Visas at the frontier in return for a fee which varies from country to country, a practice known as “sticker visa” (Kirisci 5).
Conclusion
Harmonization of the immigration policies with that of the EU has been faced with so much resistance by Turkey. This is mainly due to the fact that the citizens or the parliament is not involved in the harmonization of the policies. Instead, the process involves mainly officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior, the military and the police (Kirisci 6).
These officials report directly to the prime minister, thus showing that the government regards the integration into the EU very highly (Alessandri 8) In addition the resistance is due to the burden sharing of the harmonization of the immigration policies with EU.
Due to strategic location of the country, integration of the immigration policies with those of the EU makes the country at risk of becoming a buffer zone or a dumping ground of the asylum seekers and refugees who the EU does not want (Kirisci 7).
Works Cited
Alessandri, Emiliano. The New Turkish Foreign Policy and the Future of Turkey-EU Relations. Rome: Instituto Affari Internazionali. 2010. Web.
Flam, Harry. “Turkey and the EU: Politics of Economics and Accession.” CESifo working paper no. 893. 2003. Web.
Hug, Adam. Turkey in Europe: The economic case for Turkish membership of the European Union. London: The Foreign Policy Centre. 2008. Web.
Kirisci, Kemal. Harmonisation of migration policies and Turkey’s security challenges. Istanbul: Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies. Web.
Kirisci, Kemal. Turkey: A Transformation from Emigration to Immigration. Center for European Studies, Bogaziçi University. 2003. Web.
Lejour, A.M. et al. Assessing the economic implications of Turkish accession to the EU. The Hague: CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis. 2004. Web.
Sulamaa, Pekka & Widgrén, Mika. Turkish EU membership: a simulation study on economic effects. Web.
Tolay-Sargnon, Juliette. “Turkey’s Immigration Policy: Can EU Norms Change Turkey’s Identity?” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association. Palmer House Hotel, Chicago, IL, 2007. Web.