turkmen in iraq and their flight - orsam

TURKMEN IN IRAQ AND THEIR FLIGHT: A DEMOCRAPHIC QUESTION
regular or irregular individuals or families.
There is also across-level conflict when, for
example, the governments of sending countries
(e.g. the Baath regime in Iraq) clash with members
of disadvantaged ethnic groups in those
countries (e.g. the Turkmen in Iraq). When
the former forces the latter to accept an “Arab”
identity (i.e. the Arabisation policies), the latter
may opt for international migration (strategic
option: exit) or may opt to stay and accept the
imposed identity (strategic option: status quo).
Households provide examples of mezzo and
micro level conflict with regards to the influence
of international migration on gender roles.
For example, when husbands move abroad as
“guest workers,” wives often have to take charge
of the households left behind, which can even
lead to violent conflicts (i.e. domestic violence)
when immigrant husbands return and want to
be the head of the household again. In the Iraqi
case, conflict occurs on multiple levels; there
are policy clashes between the Iraqi government
and the governments of countries which
have to accept millions of Iraqis who fled the
country (state level); irregular Iraqi migrants
crossing international borders without papers
(multi-level); and the power structures within
Iraqi households change as males are more likely
to migrate and pass power to women left
behind (household level).
In conflict situations, international migration
may appear as a strategic option in response to
insecurity. This is what we may call “conflictinduced
insecurity” or as formulated in general,
an “environment of human insecurity” (EOHI).
Previously I have called it “environment of insecurity”
(EOI); however, within today’s heavily
“securitised” international migration discourse
(which has been particularly widespread since
the 9/11 attacks), it is necessary to distance this
human security perspective from state security
perspectives and move towards human security
where individual’s needs are the most central
and highly- prioritised. As I have discussed
elsewhere, this approach may also refer to the
model of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs model 39 ,
which assigns significance to security among
other needs 40 . According to Maslow, security
needs come after basic needs such as air, food,
shelter, and sex, all of which must be satisfied
before higher level needs can be attended to.
The security of home and family, community,
neighbourhood and country (most likely in this
order) will be prioritised by potential migrants.
Of course, the perceived satisfaction of needs is
relative, and this should also be taken into account.
But, in any case, we can argue that emigration
is one way of satisfying security needs.
The conflict-induced EOHI has two primary
components. The first is the material environment
of insecurity, which is characterized by
poverty, deprivation and armed conflict. The
second is the non-material environment of
insecurity, which is characterized by the fear
of persecution, discrimination and practical
constraints such as language barriers 41 . People
exposed to the EOHI have two strategic options:
a) status quo and b) exit. The exit option
may involve adopting a rival ethnic identity, defending
it, joining the rebels, or simply leaving
the conflict area. The status quo option primarily
refers to those who remain in the region
and adopt the dominant “ethnic” identity (e.g.
Arabic), adopting the dominant “civic” identity
(e.g. Iraqi citizenship), and/or aligning with government
forces. There can also be mixed strategies.
Within this context of ethnic conflict, I identify
a particular type of migrant group which
was distinguished from other migrants by two
key characteristics. Firstly, they were not directly
involved in ethnic conflict, and secondly,
they were already harbouring a migration plan
which was not related to the ethnic conflict situation
they were on the periphery of which.
They had, however, utilised the context of
EOHI to bring their migration plans to fruition.
In considering this type of migrant it is useful
to refer to Olson’s conception of “free riders”. 42
I found that the EOHI was triggered by the ethnic
conflict and served as an opportunity fra-
www.orsam.org.tr
19