Turkey: An inventory of migration movements

Abstract

In the opinion of the great majority of people in Western Europe Turkey is a country of emigration. This image is true and false at the same time. It is true because Turkey is a country that today has around 4 million emigrants who live abroad, of which 3.3 million in Western Europe (especially in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France). This image, however, reflects just a fragment of the whole picture. What most people forget or ignore is that Turkey has been and continues to be a country of immigration, besides being a transit country for migrants. This article offers a more comprehensive view of the history of Turkish migrations and explains the influence of these movements of people on the country.