Uncontrolled Migration Is Not Strength

In diplomatic language the term “persona non grata” means “unwelcome person”. When relations reach this point, a diplomat of one state is on the verge of being expelled by the state where he serves. What do we call it, then, when a citizen experiences the same situation? And when this citizen has become unwelcome both in his own country and in the other country… 

A few months ago it was decided that Julian Assange, publisher of the famous WikiLeaks documents and one of the world’s best-known refugees, would be extradited to the US. This is of course neither easy nor pleasant for the country making the decision, but the power of the one making the request can be decisive. Although for years they tried to toss him from hand to hand like a bomb, it was clear it would go off somewhere. It is a well-known fact that in such situations states generally decide on a cost-benefit basis. (Update: Assange was released in June 2024 under a plea agreement with the US.)

These days we frequently witness such situations in our own country too. The latest groups of refugees from Afghanistan and Pakistan in particular quickly became unwelcome because of both their behaviour and their personal profiles. In Turkey, a country of migration and transit since the first years of the Arab Spring, the sudden rise of hostility towards refugees and the wish to send migrants back to their countries are of course not without reason. Even in countries in the world that need migrants, one can find a considerable number of opponents of migration. In countries like Turkey, with a young population and high unemployment, migrants who amount to imported cheap labour begin, after a certain point, to test the limits of tolerance.

We Failed the Test of Integrating Migrants into Society

There is no doubt that migrants make up a cheap labour force. The US has used this method for more than a century, and Europe for years. The most important difference between these countries and Turkey is that they do not allow uncontrolled migration. Through the successful methods they followed in employing migrants, the US and Germany in particular prevented social unrest and also benefited economically. While gaining this benefit, they kept control over entry into the country and took care that those who came were not left to their own devices. People prone to crime who are not under control will in time do society more harm than good. They must have had bitter experiences of this before, since they treat the matter with great care. The past of colonial countries such as the US, Britain and France is of course stained by the forcibly brought migrants described as “modern slaves”. What Germany did to migrants and foreigners, especially on the road to the Second World War, is well known. Although assimilation and enslavement are not part of its history and cultural genes, it cannot be said that Turkey passed this test well either. 

The migrants and refugees who began coming to Turkey because of the Arab Spring’s effects on Syria and the civil war that broke out needed to be rehabilitated and made to feel safe before moving to the stage of integration into society. In fact both we as a society and the world were caught unprepared for this war. No one expected the war to last so long or such a wave of migration. Those who govern our country were even making plans to perform Friday prayers in the Umayyad Mosque within six months. The fact that the Directorate General of Migration Management under the Interior Ministry was not established until 2013 is itself an example of our level of preparedness for migration. Although there is already a very large import of young labour, because there was no proper planning and preparation, uncontrolled migration turned not into strength but into xenophobia.

The Government Is Creating Chaos Instead of Integration. And the Opposition?

Those who run the state made things a little more chaotic every day with the wrong decisions they took. How? Like this:

• Because the borders were not controlled effectively, anyone who wanted to walked through the wire fences and was whitewashed in the process, with no distinction between criminals and the innocent. People with criminal records and those prone to crime were not brought under control.
• Apart from some of those who crossed the border, the rest did not enter camps or refugee control zones. They therefore mixed directly into society and, without having overcome their traumas, entered circulation in a society they were not part of, open to criminal behaviour.
• The aid provided by international organisations was not passed on to them. To those who did receive aid, it was presented as a favour from the government, and with the identity papers they would receive in future, a voting potential was created. In this way they were turned into a paramilitary force for the political power.
• Many small and large companies operating in construction, logistics, manufacturing, agriculture, industry and the like obtained workers much cheaper than existing workers and without insurance. In some workplaces they were not even paid properly for the work they did cheaply, and so, as aggressive and merciless profiles, they began to harbour resentment towards society.

More examples could of course be given. The number of migrants is growing day by day, and they have begun to become a factor in the social balance of power. On the one hand criminal organisations and groups bordering on mafias, on the other those who acquire citizenship and take up posts in public institutions have become a social reality. Those who have for years sought to divide society along the Kurdish-Turkish line are now trying to stir it up through xenophobia. They will not hesitate to attempt through migrants the civil war they could never achieve through the Kurds, however hard they tried.

Nor can we ignore the role of the migrants themselves in the problems that have arisen and may arise. It does not seem possible for these migrants, who came or were brought from regions where war is never absent and survival is possible almost only by the law of the jungle, to adapt quickly to Turkey’s social life and cultural structure. Silence in the face of the crimes they commit and their absurd behaviour that disturbs society encourages them to act more boldly.

It is impossible that the rulers are unaware of such situations. Some sources even say that those running the government were directly involved in bringing in the migrants. But they are ruthless enough to resort to this path themselves when their own futures are at risk. Under these conditions, I suppose the task of ensuring common sense and calm unfortunately falls once again to citizens. The people of Anatolia, whose common sense was strong until recently, did not pass the test well in the face of what was done to those purged by emergency decree. I hope the same mistakes are not made again. Because this time they may see very different reactions from the people they face!