Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Wright J. M. (Yürütücü)
Yükseköğretim Kurumları Destekli Proje, BAP Araştırma Projesi, 2023 - 2024
Terms like "immigrant" and "migrant" have become widely used in everyday parlance, especially in the context of an increasing globalized and digitized world in which the transnational movement of people is more frequent than ever. in contrast, the term "expatriate" (or "expat") is less commoniy used, even though so-called "expat" communities abound particularly throughout developing countries in Latin America, North Africa, Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Technically, the only difference between irnmigrants and expats is that the former refers to those who move with the intention of living permanently in another country, while the latter move only temporarily or with no definite timeline. Yet, in colloquial usage, the term expat often involves preconceptions of classism denoting persons of higher privilege and status, reserved for more educated and wealthy people from developed Western countries who are living in less developed countries. The field of immigration research and "expat studies", especially in recent years, has been highly inconsistent in defining and applying the concept. This gap between colloquial and academic understandings of expats, along with the lack of conceptual clarity in immigration research, has led to unreliable findings and understanding of expat communities in places like Türkiye. Therefore, this project seeks to interrogate the meaning and construction of the idea of Western "expats" in contemporary Türkiye, exploring who they are and their reasons for coming to Türkiye. In particular, it will probe into their identity and status, examining how they construct their ideas of being an "expat", and its effect on their own social status, upward class mobility, and connection (or disconnection) with the local Turkish society and culture. Furthermore, this study will examine how digital technology has shaped their individual motivations for relocating and look for signs of a possible "culture of migration" through online networks and platforms, such as numerous Facebook groups dedicated specifically to expat communities in Türkiye.