Euro-Turks as a Force in EU-Turkey Relations

Abstract

This study focuses on the ways in which Euro-Turks affiliate themselves both with their countries of destination in the European Union and with their country of origin, Turkey. Using the institutional channelling theory, this study claims that Euro-Turks are more likely to comply with the political, economic, legal and cultural structure of their countries of settlement. The study also claims that Euro-Turks have recently become actively engaged in political participation processes at a time defined by rising Islamophobia. However, official lobbying activities of the Turkish state among Euro-Turks are likely to be more destructive than constructive in the way in which they make the Euro-Turks compete with each other on ideological grounds.