BICC Publications/By author

Fakhoury, T., & Şahin-Mencütek, Z. (2023). The Geopolitics of Return Migration in the International System. Special Issue of Geopolitics, 1-20.

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Şahin-Mencütek, Z., Gökalp Aras, N., Kaya, A., & Rottmann, S. B. (2023). Syrian Refugees in Turkey. Between Reception and Integration.: Springer Cham.

This open access book provides a comprehensive analysis of Turkey’s response to Syrian mass migration from 2011 to 2020. It examines internal and external dimensions of the refugee issue in relation to Middle Eastern geopolitics as well as the salience of controlling irregular migration to the... more

Şahin-Mencütek, Z. (2023). The Role of Return Preparedness, Assistance and Networks in Returnees’ Reintegration in Origin Countries (Synthesis Report) (BICC Working Paper series No. /2023). Bonn: BICC.

Across the destination countries of migration, i.e. migrant-receiving countries, in Europe there has been an increasing emphasis on return and reintegration programmes. These programmes particularly target rejected asylum-seekers forced to return, irregular migrants unable to legalise their stay in... more

Şahin-Mencütek, Z., & Tsourapas, G. (2022). When Do States Repatriate Refugees? Evidence from the Middle East. Journal of Global Security Studies, 8(1), .

Which conditions affect whether a state will choose to repatriate forcibly displaced populations residing within its borders? One of the most pressing issues related to the protracted Syrian refugee situation concerns the future of over 5 million Syrians who sought shelter in neighboring states.... more

Kayaoglu, A., Şahin-Mencütek, Z., & Chang, C.-A. (2022). Challenges and Resilience Strategies of Urban Refugee Entrepreneurs, Economic Research Forum, Working Paper No. 1601.

Refugee entrepreneurship is key to promoting self-reliance and resilience among refugees. It ensures a smoother transition from humanitarian to development programs, so it is considered mutually beneficial for the refugees, their hosts, and the overall humanitarian-development aid sector. Its... more

Şahin-Mencütek, Z. (2022). The Geopolitics of Returns: Geopolitical Reasoning and Space-Making in Turkey’s Repatriation Regime. Geopolitics, 27 (3), 1-27.

Despite growing interest in the return of rejected asylum seekers, irregular migrants, and refugees, we do not know enough about how geopolitics affects returns governance. This article addresses this knowledge gap by analysing the case of Turkey, exploring how positions in the global migration... more

Şahin-Mencütek, Z. (2022). The Institutionalization of “Voluntary” Returns in Turkey. Migration and Society: Advances in Research, 5, 43–58.

The increasing salience and variations of “voluntary” return techniques have not yet been thoroughly investigated in the context of Global South countries, which host the majority of displaced people. As the largest refugee host and transit country, the case of Turkey provides important insights on... more

Şahin-Mencütek, Z., Barthoma, S., Gökalp Aras, N., & Triandafyllidou, A. (2022). A crisis mode in migration governance: comparative and analytical insights. Comparative Migration Studies, 10, 1-19.

This paper takes stock of the emerging literature on the governance and framing of both migration and asylum as ‘crises’. This study carries forward this line of thinking by showing how the crisis governance of migration is not just a representation or a discourse but emerges as a mode of... more

Şahin-Mencütek, Z. (2022). Voluntary and Forced Return Migration Under a Pandemic Crisis. In A. Triandafyllidou (Ed.), Migration and Pandemics. Spaces of Solidarity and Spaces of Exception (IMISCOE Research Series) (pp. 185-206). Cham: Springer.

The Covid-19 pandemic has an impact on migrants’ return desires and actual returns across the globe. Border closures in the face of pandemic lead to the panic mobility of those returning home. The ensuing lockdowns and economic difficulties restricted migrant workers’ access to income and... more

Kaya, A., Rottmann, S. B., Gökalp Aras, N., & Şahin-Mencütek, Z. (2021). Turkey: Border Management, Protection, Reception, and Integration of Refugees. In S. Barthoma, & A. O. Cetrez (Eds.), RESPONDing to Migration: A Holistic Perspective on Migration Governance (pp. 187-208). Uppsala: Uppsala University.

What’s past’, as the famous line in Shakespeare’s The Tempest has it, ‘is prologue’. Just as this edited volume is being compiled in 2021—some six years after the 2015 refugee emergency—developments in Afghanistan and the Polish–Belarus border appear once again to be leading to a new migration... more

Gökalp Aras, N., Papatzani, E., Şahin-Mencütek, Z., Leivaditi, N., & Petracou, E. (2021). Governance of Refugee Protection: Challenges in Europe and Beyond. In S. Barthoma, & A. O. Cetrez (Eds.), RESPONDing to Migration. A Holistic Perspective on Migration Governance (pp. 123-146). Uppsala: Uppsala University.

What’s past’, as the famous line in Shakespeare’s The Tempest has it, ‘is prologue’. Just as this edited volume is being compiled in 2021—some six years after the 2015 refugee emergency—developments in Afghanistan and the Polish–Belarus border appear once again to be leading to a new migration... more