Russia, primary destination for job-seeking Turkish migrants
Posted by meb at February 6th, 2008
Turkish workers continue to go abroad for new job opportunities, but the destinations have changed drastically over time.
European countries, especially Germany, were the major choices for Turkish workers in the 1970s. Now Russia and Kazakhstan have replaced Europe as the primary destination for Turkish citizens seeking employment abroad.
According to data from the Turkish Employment Organization (İŞKUR), since 2000 Russia has ranked first among the countries to which Turkish workers go for work. Kazakhstan is the runner-up, while Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkmenistan follow — all surpassing Germany.
In 2007, 75,268 Turkish workers went abroad. One third, or 23,118, of them went to Russia. That number was 19,000 in 2005 and 24,000 in 2006. Kazakhstan accepted 7,974 Turkish workers in 2007, while 6,711 went to Iraq. Despite a sharp decline, Germany received 5,632 workers last year.
The total number of workers going abroad was 40,000 in 2004; 60,000 in 2005; and 81,000 in 2006.
In the 1970s European countries were the major destination for Turkish workers seeking jobs. There may have been hundreds of thousands of workers immigrating to Germany in any given year at that time. After the collapse of Soviet Union, however, Russia and the newly arising Turkic republics became a new destination for Turkish workers.
There were two main reasons behind this shift. First, Europe had stopped accepting immigrants. The second and the more significant reason was that Turkish entrepreneurs had become widely involved in the projects in these countries. Reconstruction projects in Afghanistan and Iraq after also made these countries promising for both entrepreneurs and workers.
source: Today’s Zaman
Related posts: