turkmen in iraq and their flight - orsam

TURKMEN IN IRAQ AND THEIR FLIGHT: A DEMOCRAPHIC QUESTION
Conclusion
Obviously, in any survey on international migration
there are inevitable data collection
problems. Firstly, regarding studies in the destination
countries, there are hardly any population
frames from which one can satisfactorily
draw representative samples. Then, in the
countries of origin, it is often not possible to
find migrants themselves because by definition
they are in the country of destination and we
use proxy respondents in such cases. Another
related problem is that there could be families
or households moved abroad altogether. Therefore,
we are not able even to record such cases
in most surveys. Moreover, if surveys cover ethnic
populations, particularly minorities in conflict
areas, there are further difficulties. These
include difficulty in collecting some “sensitive”
information such as mother language or information
reflecting political, cultural or religious
preference. These were all the problems our research
team faced in this study too. Therefore
the results presented here should be read with
caution bearing all these in mind.
Let’s begin with the conclusions drawn on the
findings of the second survey. While studying
Iraqi Turkmen immigrants in Turkey, I was expecting
a strong correlation between the conflict,
wars and ethnic tensions and their international
migration. Economic and educational
aspirations seem to dominate the movement.
However when we asked their opinions, many
also reported that there are more cultural and
political freedoms in Turkey. This can be linked
to my concept of environment of human insecurity
where such non-material securities are
also important.
Educational prospects seem to be very important
for Iraqi Turkmen as they had high educational
levels prior to migration and also they
improved their already high educational profiles
after migration. Nevertheless, they reported
economic reasons as a key driver. This is not
very surprising as most migratory moves around
the world would show similar results.
Turkmen immigrants in Turkey portrayed an
unattractive picture of migration as they do
not suggest others to migrate abroad. At the
same time, only a small fraction of them were
interested in migrating to another country in
the near future. This can be interpreted as migration
did not meet their expectations. Nonetheless,
this can be also either a sampling error
or a subsystem of Turkmen international migration.
Since in the other survey we have conducted
in Iraq, we have found that conflict, war,
and fear of persecution were an integral part of
migration and current migrants were reported
to be more satisfied with their gains through
migration.
In the survey conducted in major cities and
towns in Iraq, we have found that Turkmen is
a well-educated population. Reflecting a valuable
human resource a quarter of women and
one third of men attended university whereas
only one in ten had no education. Representing
a rich human capital, this should be very helpful
in Iraq’s reconstruction.
High level of international migration was found
among Iraqi Turkmen. More than one in every
three Turkmen households have at least one
of their members migrated abroad (35%). It is
even striking almost a tenth of the total Turkmen
population via migration abroad. As only
less than 20% returned, this may prove that
Turkmen have been leaving their homeland
due to the environment of human insecurity
they have been exposed to for a long while.
Turkmen international migration can be
counted as a case of forced migration. However,
I would argue we can find features of forced
migration in most if not all human mobility experiences.
Iraqi Turkmen were pretty well off
living in sufficient and satisfactory conditions.
Thus without the force of the environment of
human insecurity, they would not possibly flee
their homeland.
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