Government & International Relations Seminar Series:

Diaspora Diplomacy: The Politics of Turkish Emigration to Europe

Presenter: Ayca Arkilic, Political Science and International Relations, Victoria University of Wellington

Hybrid event: Social Sciences Building (A02), Room 650 and Zoom

Given that diasporas may communicate to multiple stakeholders and audiences, it is surprising that the literature on diasporas and diplomacy has paid little attention to the question of how diasporas blur the division between the domestic and the foreign. Diaspora scholars have mostly investigated diasporas as an issue of “domestic politics.” On the other hand, diplomacy scholars have referred to diasporas in passing. Diaspora Diplomacy: The Politics of Turkish Emigration to Europe (Manchester University Press, 2022) contributes to the contextualization of diaspora studies within diplomatic studies by detailing how Turkey’s diaspora diplomacy has affected Turkey’s relations with European countries and the EU. The limited number of studies on this topic have investigated the positive effects of diaspora diplomacy for the home or host countries. In contrast, this book examines the plethora of transnational and international diplomatic tensions that arise from the new role Turkey’s diaspora has in Europe as a diplomatic actor. The book draws on fourteen months of fieldwork in France, Germany, and Turkey, and over hundred interviews conducted with French, German, Turkish and EU policymakers and Turkey-originated diaspora organization leaders. It represents a significant addition to the growing literature on diasporas and diplomacy, and speaks to broader debates on soft power, sovereignty, de-territorialization, long distance nationalism, and authoritarianism.

Dr Ayca Arkilic is senior lecturer in Political Science and International Relations at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. She has published on state-diaspora relations, the Alevi diaspora, and Islam in Europe and Aotearoa New Zealand. Ayca is currently co-editing The Routledge Handbook of Turkey’s Diasporas with Dr Banu Senay (Macquarie University). She serves as associate editor of Diaspora Studies and sits on the international advisory board of Mediterranean Politics. She was a visiting researcher at Oxford’s Center for Islamic Studies, the WZB Berlin Social Science Research Center’s Migration, Integration, Transnationalization research unit, and Sciences Po-Paris between 2013-2015.