Turkey - Migration

Much Turkish emigration has consisted of workers under contract for employment in EC countries. Germany alone had 1,779,600 Turks at the end of 1991. There are also large numbers of Turks in prosperous Muslim countries such as Sa'udi Arabia, the Gulf states, and Libya. In 1994, there were 14,000 Turkish Kurds in northern Iraq. The military conflict in southeastern Turkey has internally displaced hundreds of thousands of persons; however, this problem has not been officially recognized by Turkey.

After the 1991 Gulf War, 500,000 Iraqi Kurds fled to Turkey. Most of these refugees have since repatriated or resettled in third countries. In 1992, 20,000 Bosnians came to Turkey, though all have left except for 4,000 as of March 1997. In 1999, nearly 18,000 Kosovar refugees sought asylum in Turkey, including 8,000 people evacuated from Macedonia; nearly all have since voluntarily repatriated. In addition to these mass arrivals, there are individual asylum seekers from Iran and Iraq. Non-European refugees are granted only temporary protection in Turkey, so nearly all must be resettled. In 1998, 1,629 refugees were resettled in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the Nordic countries; approximately the same number was expected for 1999. The net migration rate was zero in 1999.