The Europeanization of Turkish Asylum Policy: An Intensive Case Study on the European Union Accession Process Effect on the Evolution of Turkish Asylum Policy and the Adoption of the Law on Foreigners and International Protection

Abstract: This thesis aims to explain the effect of Turkey’s accession process to the European Union on its asylum policy’s evolution. By applying two branches of new institutional theory––rational choice and social institutionalism––the thesis analyzed the Europeanization phenomenon of the European Union’s accession effect on domestic policy change. In order to do so, process tracing and document analysis were applied to the European Commission’s regular progress reports for Turkey from 1998 when Turkey received its very first report––one year before its declaration as an EU candidate state at the 1999 Helsinki Summit––to 2013 when the Law on Foreigners and International Protection was adopted. Additionally, a small-scale content analysis is employed to observe the importance given to the issue by the European Commission. The fact that Turkey had no comprehensive legislation regarding its asylum and migration issue until 2013 used to constitute a sizable problem for asylum seekers, Europe, and Turkey itself. The study shows that the accession conditionality as the main tool of the EU, rational decisions of authorities and officials supported by the EU incentives along with their socialization with their European counterparts through several EU projects shaped the process. Turkish asylum policy has Europeanized by the formation of the Law on Foreigners and International Protection and the establishment of the Directorate General of Migration Management. The process has resulted in changed norms, practices, policies and the ‘way of doing things’ introduced by the EU.