Since irregular migration has become an immanent feature of contemporary world and the increase of the number of illegal immigrants arriving on Europe’s shores have caused the issue of irregular migration becoming one of the most hotly debated cases among the European countries. Over the last decade -especially, after 2004 and 2007 Eastern enlargements along with the last global economic crisis- there has been an alteration in political discourses and positions; security policies and applications; and legal arrengements and practices in the EU. Along with these developments, border security has gained a greater importance becoming one of the EU’s top priorities to deal with (Kirisci, 2003). Inevitably these developments put Turkey at the center of attention for a number of reasons, but most importantly, Turkey has become a major transit country for illegal migration so that two-third of illegal migrants came through Turkey to the EU in 2011 (FRONTEX Annual Report 2011). Similarly, as stated by Turkey’s 2013 Progress Report (AB, 2014) Turkey has been continuing to be an important transit and destination country for migration. In 2012, 47.510 irregular migrants were apprehended by the Turkish authorities in 2012, which represents an increase of 7% as compared with 2011. Due to the increasing importance of the issue, the research will mainly analyse the role of Turkey on the EU’s border security in terms of illegal migration through Turkey to the EU. In this sense, the research proposal will be carried out under four sections. In the first section, research topic, research aim, research question(s) and hypotheses of the dissertation will be provided. In the second section, the literature related to the dissertation will be briefly outlined. From here in the third section, the research design, methodology and the choice and justification of evidence gathering strategies will be discussed and justified. In the last section, proposed outline structure of the dissertation will be provided and finally, a brief timetable will be represented.
Research Topic:
Illegal Migration through Turkey and EU Border Security.
Research Topic:
Before designing any research study, the main issue is to decide which topic will be studied and what the research topic is (Bryman, 2012:92). Choosing a topic is more difficult than it at first seems. A research topic must be narrow and focused enough to be interesting, yet broad enough to find adequate information for the research. Despite these difficulties, research topic can be chosen in variety of ways by researchers. It is a known fact that, researchers’ decisions are necessarily influenced by some factors such as interest, experience, popularity, problem solving, previous research and theory. However, choosing a research topic are mainly influenced by the scientific field that researcher interests it, so researchers usually select research topics that are of interest to them (Marczyk et al., 2005). As stated by Gray (2009) ‘clearly, the best approach is to select a research topic that interests you, and one that is likely to maintain your interest. The research process can be a long and arduous one, so you need to be committed to your subject’. In accordance with these facts we will focus on our interest, field and duties, hereby, irregular migration issue and its impact on relationship between the EU and Turkey in terms of accession process is chosen as research topic. With the research project, the research topic will be analysed and it is tried to find an answer the research question with the academic study procedures.
‘ An account of your proposed research topic and a discussion of its importance or relevance. Why is this topic worth studying? This should bring the importance of relevant literature.
Research question:
Research Question:
According to Gray (2009) research question is a specific formulation of the issues that a research project will address’. Sometimes researchers are confused about research questions and problems. As stated by Alford (1998), research questions are not same as problems, in contrast to a problem, a research question consists of two units: ‘first, a connection to a theoretical framework; secondly, a sentence in which every word counts and which ends (not surprisingly) with a question mark. Questions also will take you a major step forward in the planning of your project describes potential relationships between and among variables that are to be tested’. Along with helping of our research question, we try to find out specific outcome about our research topic.
Research question locates at middle ground between a theory, which is more extensive and a hypothesis that is very specific (VanderStoep and Deirdre, 2009). Therefore most grounded theory researchers usually begin with research questions but they do not start with a hypothesis, nor do they begin their investigation with a thorough review of the literature related to their topic (Bell, 2010).
There are some important considerations about research question; firstly research question must be stated clearly and precisely, as well as being eminently researchable, secondly to bear in mind is whether the research question is answerable, namely, a research question must have the potential for being answered in the project to be undertaken (Andrews, 2003).
It is recommended that researchers must be clear about their research question before developing a research design (De Vaus, 2001). Because choosing a good research question facilitates to designate a clear direction and scope for the research project; it can also provide an important clue concerning the most relevant research strategy to be used. This may help to narrow the focus on the topic as well (Yin, 2009). As stated, after the topic was chosen we focused on to develop our research question, because our research project and its design would be constructed upon the research question.
As Yin (2009) refers, initial task for researcher is to clarify properly the nature of their study question. In this regard, after determining the research topic (the effects of illegal immigration to the EU and Turkey relationship in terms of accession process) we have decided the main and sub-questions as follows:
Main question: How does Turkey’s role as a transit country for illegal immigration impact the EU’s border security?
Sub-Questions
1. What does border security mean?
2. When did the securitization of borders first start?
3. What are the theoretical approaches in terms of border security?
4. What sort of measures taken by the EU to secure its external borders?
5. What is the border security policy of EU?
6. What is the border security policy of Turkey?
7. What are the practices of Turkey to securing its borders?
8. How does the Turkey apply the EU border policy?
Hypothesis:
‘ Your research question(s) and/or hypothesis/es or the arguments you will be addressing. Why are these important and relevant?
Why the Research is Important:
‘ An account of your proposed research topic and a discussion of its importance or relevance. Why is this topic worth studying? This should bring the importance of relevant literature.
Literature Review and Theory:
‘ A literature review, in which you should discuss the literature you have identified as relevant for your topic, and provide a coherent analysis of that literature, not simply recount what was said
‘ You can use the literature review to justify your research question, or you can provide a literature review in a separate section
‘ A good literature review should analyse how different scholars or schools have thought have approached the topic; and a good literature review should help you to demonstrate the relevance of your question and approach.
Justification
After 9/11 western countries felt the aftershocks of those traumatic events. The rhetoric regarding the need for increased European security started to intensify after 2001.
After this trauma western world has changed their approach from freedom to securitization and they have developed some new position, arguments and practice to overcome the new threats.
For example, in terms of current illegal migration flows, EU started to apply Readmission agreement with the neighbour and source countries. ‘Migration partnership’ is also established with further EU-neighbouring countries, which will obligate these to prevent migration and take back emigrants. And the EU has set up a surveillance system called EUROSUR to facilitate the measures.
The surveillance system costing ‘250 million (US$340 million) protects the EU borders against ‘illegal’ immigrants, using drones, satellite-based search systems, offshore sensors and biometric identity controls.
Established the FRONTEX (European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union). In 2005.
In the light of this brief information, my research project will mainly analyse the trend of the immigration through to Turkey to the EU and the impact of the border enforcement on it. I will try to evaluate whether the EU border control policy affected immigration trend ??n the case of Turkey in the last two decades.
Thus, in the light of that, the desire of understanding how migration has been controlled through national policies in the EU and the possible connections between border security policy and immigration level inspired this research project to be done. In accordance with the own field and main path and with the interest, the research topic is `border control in the EU and as a transit country Turkey’s role on the EU’s border security
Along with abolishing internal borders by the Schengen Treaty in 1985, the protection of external borders has gained more attention (Georgiev 2010:256). Ending the Cold War and falling down the Iron Curtain, the states from Eastern Europe wanted to be a member of union. By the time enlargement of EU became the main issue of union, the governments of union prepared the framework of Amsterdam Treaty which contains the conditions of enlargement and Schengen Convention. Also in this treaty the EU governments decided to apply same policy on the borders (Koslowski 1998:31).
Within this treaty the countries which were intended to be member of union were expected to adapt their statements such as legal, economic and political positions. Koslowski (1998) states that the six countries out of twelve were accepted to negotiate for membership by European Commission for membership as the Amsterdam treaty was signed and five of them were decided to start negotiations in few years. Turkey was the only country whose application was refused (p.32). On the other hand the relations between Turkey and EU changed at the beginning of the twenty first century. Prof. Kemal Kirisci (2007) states it as:
‘Relations between Turkey and EU entered a new stage in October 2005 when the decision to start accession negotiations was finally taken. The Helsinki Council decision in December 1999 to declare Turkey as a candidate country for membership precipitated a massive process of political transformation in Turkey. This culminated in the European Commission’s decision in October 2004 that Turkey had met the Copenhagen political criteria sufficiently. The Commission recommended to the Council to start negotiations with Turkey ‘without delay’ (p.1).’
And eventually the negotiations were started in October 2005 with Turkey. During negotiations Turkey is expected to adapt 35 chapters and one of these chapters is about security, justice and freedom. This chapter cover the Schengen visa regime and the Maastricht Treaty’s third pillar which is about the immigration and asylum ( Kirisci 2007: 1). However, after the terrorist attacks on 9/11 in US and London bombing in 2005, European Union members have been sensitive to the weakness of external borders which will caused entry of the criminals and terrorists in the union(Baldaccini 2008:31). Moreover, due to the terrorists were Muslim and Turkey’s south borders are with Muslim world, EU get anxious about the security of borders in the membership of Turkey. Prof Kemal Krisci (2007) states this situation like that:
‘In this respect Turkey is very central to the EU’s efforts to develop and implement a common immigration policy. Firstly, Turkey sits a critical geographical location in terms of immigration related issues’The instability, violence and economic problems in the ‘broader’ Middle East aggravate this situation. Furthermore, in the ‘broader’ Middle East there are a number of governments that are often associated with support for terrorism or organisations linked to terrorism’Secondly, Turkey’s borders with this region are very long and cross very difficult terrain to manage and control’These adversely affect attitude towards Turkey’s accession to the EU and provoke resistance to Turkish membership (p.2).’
After the starting negotiations with EU for membership, Turkey made a commitment to apply the policy of EU in the management of integrated borders in the national programme of 2008. However, the practices of Turkish government to apply the policy of EU border management was not found sufficient in the Progress Report of Turkey 2009 and Turkey was criticised to progress limited on the external borders management (Ozler 2010:4). In this sense, it could be appropriate for researching whether the border security and management policy of EU could apply to the borders of Turkey or not (Suat Proposal Intr.).
Since the issue of irregular migration has become one of the EU’s top priorities to deal with, it pressurizes Turkey to align its policies with the EU acquis which is required as a condition for accession. Thus, the next part of the paper elaborates Turkey’s policies and legislative efforts aimed at coping with the irregular transit migration flows through its territory. After describing the important developments made by Turkey at international level and the domestic measures taken in order to combat with irregular migration, it examines the tasks that Turkey would have to fulfill to align its immigration policies with those of the EU in Accession Partnership Documents as well as Turkey’s aims and commitments in its National Action Plans. (Nedime Asl?? ??irin, The Issue Of Irregular Migration In The Light Of Turkey- Eu Relations And Its Effects On The Negotiations)
Another main part of the paper elaborates two controversial issues arising from the negotiations between Turkey and the EU in the field of migration policies. The first issue is signing a readmission agreement which creates disagreement because of Turkey’s reluctance and laying down the condition of visa exemption. The second controversial issue is geographical limitation that Turkey apply accepting refugees only coming from Europe. Then it considers the step taken by Turkey under the 1994 Asylum Regulation regarding explicitly non-European refugees and asylum seekers (Nedime Asl?? ??irin, The Issue Of Irregular Migration In The Light Of Turkey- Eu Relations And Its Effects On The Negotiations)
In the case of Turkey, due to its geographical position between Europe, Asia and Africa, it has attracted considerable policy attention and with its involvement in irregular migration flows, both as a source and transit country, the issue of irregular migration has been among the most controversial issues in the EU (Europol, 2009; Frontex, 2007, 2008, 2009) Turkey’s geographical position as a natural bridge can explain why it is one of the most visible cases in terms of irregular migration. Turkey shares a 269 km border with Bulgaria and 203 km with Greece. Especially the Turkish- Greek border and the length of Aegean Sea coasts serve as attractive routes for irregular migrants originally from various parts of Asia, Africa and the Middle East (Nedime Asl?? ??irin, The Issue Of Irregular Migration In The Light Of Turkey- Eu Relations And Its Effects On The Negotiations)
.
One of the first documents involving statements in the respect of management of migration is the Accession Partnership Document which was prepared for Turkey in 2003 involving a list of tasks that Turkey would have to fulfill to align its immigration policies with those of the EU. Another Accession Partnership Document, prepared in 2006, also includes a number of similar measures under ‘the Cooperation in the field of Justice and Home Affairs’ to combat irregular migration such as the development of asylum policy, negotiating and signing a readmission agreement with source countries and with the EU istelf, the construction of reception centres, improving the practices on deportation, lifting the geographical limitation to the 1951 Geneva Convention. In accordance with Accession Partnership Document, Turkey prepared its initial National Program for the Adoption of the Acquis in March 2001 that was revised in 2003 and 2008. In the Justice and Home Affairs Chapter of the National Program for the Adoption of the Acquis, Turkey committed itself to reinforce the fight against illegal migration (Vuka??inovi??:2011). In line with the National Programme, ‘Turkish National Action Plan for the Adoption of the EU acquis in the field of Asylum and Migration’ was prepared and put into force by the Turkish government on 25 March 2005. This plan aimed to expand and strengthen the methods, measures and regulations in terms of effective management in the field of asylum and migration. Besides taking all these legal measures, Turkey also established stricter controls at borders and ports (Nedime Asl?? ??irin, The Issue Of Irregular Migration In The Light Of Turkey- Eu Relations And Its Effects On The Negotiations)
At the same time, illegal migration has become an immanent feature of contemporary world and state governments started to increase efforts to legalize migration flows and to gain control over illegal migration; hence they pursue migration management at the bilateral, regional, and (to lesser extent) multilateral levels. Turkish government, however, has not been eager to establish migration policy aimed at dealing with contemporary migration flows until recent years. However, the rise in number of illegal migrants in Turkey over the past two decades and especially Turkey’s drive for EU membership played important role in inducing major changes to Turkish migration policies. Illegal migration issue is very high on political agenda of EU-Turkey relations and consequently there is ‘EU pressure’ on Turkey for better management of migration. Starting from this point, this article examines to what extent political cooperation functions in the area of illegal migration with respect to Turkey’s accession process to the EU (Vuka??inovi??, 2011).
As the number of illegal immigrants arriving on Europe’s shores has increased, the issue of irregular migration has gained a greater importance becoming one of the EU’s top priorities to deal with. Since Greece has been directly affected from these irregular movements coming through Turkey, it draws attention to the issue by reporting the increasing number of the incidences involving illegal transit migrant in the media. Turkey did not make much progress in terms of immigration policies until it gained the candidate status to EU membership in December 1999. Since then, irregular migration has become an integral part of Turkey’s EU membership debate. The EU pressurizes Turkey for harmonizing its migration policy with EU law in order to control and prevent incoming migration and asylum flows (Nedime Asl?? ??irin, The Issue Of Irregular Migration In The Light Of Turkey- Eu Relations And Its Effects On The Negotiations)
Bunlara bak. Kirisci- Border management and EU-Turkish relations convergence or deadlock
Kirisci- The Question of Asylum and Illegal Migration in European Union-Turkish Relations.
Research Design:
‘ Comment on your research design, or discussion of the way in which you will approach the research, or the assumptions that underpin your work. Why are you approaching it in this way, what are the advantages or potential pitfalls of so doing?
Case Study:
Research Mehodology: (Evidence Gathering Methods and Approaches)
‘ The methodology / evidence gathering strategy to be used. Why this approach rather than the available alternatives? How will you collect your evidence? What type of documents will you use? Where will you source them? What type of interviews will you conduct? With whom? What data will you collect? What are the theoretical implications of your approach? Depending on your method, you may need to give some in-depth discussion of the problems/difficulties of the approach.
Proposed Outline Structure:
‘ Outline of chapters. Be sure to give some consideration to the order, content and titles of these chapters. Remember to think of writing a dissertation not as a very long essay but as a short book. It should have separate chapters, with clear and appropriate titles, a table of contents and a bibliography.
Chapter 1- Introduction
In this chapter, the research topic and research question will be introduced and clarify as well as the goal of the study, research design, research methodology, data collection methods will be provided. Additionally, this chapter will propound a general perspective of the study including salient relevant theories, methodologies, studies and models. Then, at the end of the chapter the overall framework of the dissertation will be presented.
Chapter 2- EU border security
In the second chapter of the dissertation, notion of border, new border security framework, contemporary border policies and its outcomes is going to be explained and discussed, in addition to this, the theoretical approaches, assumptions and ongoing arguments that have been exist in the field of border security will be overviewed as well. Lastly, the border security policies, applications, and the historical background of the border security in the EU and Turkey will be discussed and analysed due to the analysis and discussion of the securitization of immigration has been always linked with border security.
Chapter 3- Turkey as a transit country
In the third chapter, the definition of the transit country in terms of illegal migration will be explained. Later, the figures of illegal migration through Turkey to the EU will be discussed and analysed, by this means, Turkey’s role as a transit country for illegal immigration will be evaluated. At the end of the chapter, the border policy, practise and the securitisation efforts of borders in Turkey will be represented.
Chapter 4- Analysis of Turkey’s role as a transit country to the EU’s border security.
The chapter will investigate to what extent contemporary irregular migration flows affects border security in general. However, it will discuss the main characteristics of illegal migration through Turkey to the EU and its impact of the EU’s border security in particular. The aim here is to try to find out whether the illegal migration through Turkey to the EU becomes a certain security threats to the EU’s border security.
Chapter 5- Conclusion
This chapter combines and analyses the whole work and reveals the key findings. Additionally possible implications for Turkey and the EU will be evaluated.
Timetable
Initial Bibliography:
The sources to be consulted. Provide an initial bibliography that shows evidence of having consulted a range of different bibliographic sources. Be sure to make enough reference to some of them in the discussion of your topic to ensure that you can demonstrate that this bibliography is more than just a list of possible references. Also be sure to present your bibliography correctly.
Bibliography:
AB. 2014. ‘Turkey 2013 progress report’ [online] Available at: http://www.ab.gov.tr/files/AB_Iliskileri/Tur_En_Realitons/Progress/tr_rapport_2013_en.pdf [Accessed 30 April 2014].
Alford, R.R., 1998. The Craft of Inquiry: Theory, Methods, Evidence. New York: Oxford University Press.
Andrews, R., 2003. Research questions. London: Continuum.
Bell, J., 2010. Doing Your Research Project. New York: Open University Press.
Blaikie, N. 2010. Designing social research. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bryman, A., 2012. Social research methods. Newyork: Oxford University Press.
Creswell, J. W., 2009. Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. 3rd ed. London: SAGE.
Creswell, J. W., 2013. Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. 3rd ed. London: SAGE.
De Vaus, D., 2001. Research design in social research. New Delhi, California, London: SAGE Publications Lmtd.
Denscombe, M., 2010. The good research guide: for small-scale social research projects. Glasgow: Bell and Bain Ltd.
FRONTEX, 2011. Annual Report. [online] Available at:<http://frontex.europa.eu/assets/ Publications/Risk_Analysis/EB_RAN_2011.pdf> [Accessed 30 April 2014].
Gillham, B., 2000. Case study research methods. New York, London: Continuum.
Gray, D. E., 2009. Doing research in the real world. London: SAGE Publications Limited
Henn, M., Weinstein, M. and Foard, N., 2006. A short introduction to social research. London: SAGE.
Icduygu, A., 2011. ‘The Irregular Migration Corridor between the EU and Turkey: Is it Possible to Block it with a Readmission Agreement’?. European University Institute Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies. pp.6-22
Kiri??ci, K., 2003. ‘The question of asylum and illegal migration in European Union-Turkish relations’. Turkish Studies, 4(1). pp.79-106.
Marczyk, G.R., Dematteo, D. and Festinger, D., 2005. Essentials of research design and methodology. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Mason, J., 2002. Qualitative Researching. 2nd ed. London: SAGE.
VanderStoep, S.W. and Johnson, D.D., 2009. Research methods for everyday life: Blending qualitative and quantitative approaches. San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass.
Vartanian, T. P., 2011. Secondary data analysis. Newyork: Oxford University Press.
Vuka??inovi??, J., 2011. ‘Illegal Migration in Turkey-EU Relations: An Issue of Political Bargaining or Political Cooperation’?. European Perspectives, 3(2), pp.147-166.
Walliman, N., 2006. Social research methods. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
White, P., 2009. Developing research questions: a guide for social scientists. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Yin, R. K., 2009. Case study research: Design and methods 4th ed. California, London: SAGE.
Georgiev, V., 2010. ‘Towards a Common European Border Security’, European Security, 19(2) pp.255-274.