Liaisons, labelling and laws: International Organization for Migration bordercratic interventions in Turkey
Abstract
This article examines the role of the International Organisation for Migration in relation to the emergence of Turkey’s first law on asylum. The enactment of this law needs to be understood in parallel to the formation of a bordercratic community of practice. Bordercrats operate within a specialist domain of knowledge centred on a migration management rationality which is produced and diffused across institutions and states. Officers from the IOM bring migration management knowledges and practices to local sites through technical expertise, courtship moves and social learning. At the same time Turkish ‘local’ actors gain authority through their participation in the transnational field, which invariably involves assimilation of Europe-facing agendas. IOM classifications of Turkey as variously ‘transit’, ‘destination’, ‘European’, ‘Muslim’ and ‘safe’ have a performative function for steering Turkey towards containing the EU’s unwanted migrants.