An Assessment of the Evolution of Turkey’s Migration Policy within the Context of Turkey-European Union Relations and Syrian Displaced Persons

The migration dialogue between Turkey and the EU is becoming more important as millions of Syrians are in search for safe havens and the far right is rising in Europe by blaming the migrants for the economic problems that the continent is facing. The fact that EU is increasingly shaping its migration policy in connection with its security concerns has also substantial impact on its cooperation with Turkey and the development of Turkey’s legal framework on migration. As a candidate country for the EU membership, Turkey committed to adopt the EU’s legislation and practices on migration (admission, readmission and expulsion), build administrative and judicial capacity and improve the coordination between the ministries on migration. In this sense, this study’s focus is to examine how the Turkey-EU migration dialogue and ongoing instability in Syria affected the evolution of Turkey’s migration policy