The project
Migration Diplomacy and Turkish-EU Relations is a research project developed by South East European Studies at Oxford (SEESOX), University of Oxford, Berlin Institute for Empirical Integration and Migration Research of Humboldt University (BIM), and the Berlin-based German Centre for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM).
The Principal Investigators of the project are:
Dr Othon Anastasakis, Director of SEESOX
Dr Franck Düvell, Director of DeZIM
Dr Serhat Karakayalı from BIM
In addition to the principal investigators, the SEESOX team includes
Dr Mehmet Karlı, Co-Ordinator of Programme on Contemporary Turkey at SEESOX
Ms Ezgi Basaran, researcher at SEESOX
Dr. Foteini Kalantzi, A.G. Leventis Research Officer at SEESOX
Dr Manolis Pratsinakis, SEESOX/Onassis Research Fellow at the DPIR
This one-year project is seed-funded by the Oxford-Berlin Research Partnership. In line with the objectives of this partnership, and its purpose is to prepare a broader and more comprehensive research proposal that will be submitted to main research funding institutions at a second stage.
The project’s objectives are multi-faceted. In particular it
- seeks a better understanding of the current migration environment and its impact on the EU-Turkish relations looking at migrants and refugees as agents and drivers of major changes that affect ‘migration diplomacy’;
- looks carefully at reasons, motivations and actors that are driving Turkey’s migration policy;
- examines the EU’s endangered leverage over Turkey;
- analyses Turkey’s changing geopolitics in the region as well as relations with other external actors with a stake in Turkey’s migration diplomacy.
The project on Migration Diplomacy and Turkish-EU Relations has organized its kick off meeting on the 17-18 of January 2020 at Humboldt University, Berlin which set the parameters of the debate.
The next step is the organisation of two-day seminar which will include foremost experts in the field that will take place in Oxford in June 2020.
The meeting in Oxford will touch upon the following issues:
- the current migratory reality in the region;
- conceptual and historical discussion of the notion of “migration diplomacy”;
- understanding the drivers, actors and issues of migration within Turkey;
- EU migration policies vis a vis Turkey;
- implementation of policies and discussion of EU concrete projects in Turkey;
- linking Turkey’s migration diplomacy with other geopolitical challenges in the region and the role of external actors.
Following the meeting in June, the members of the research team will arrange study visits to Turkey and Brussels.
More info on the Oxford-Berlin Research Partnership