Refugee Illegality: Governing Refugees via Rescaling Borders in Turkey

Abstract

In its efforts to control the mobility and whereabouts of its refugee populations, Turkey enforces registration requirements for refugees, tying refugee rights to continuing residency in a particular province. Drawing on the literature on rescaling of borders and illegalization of refugee mobilities, this article argues that the Turkish asylum regime creates internal borders, producing the province as the key legal geography of asylum. Based on qualitative data collected in 2018–19, this article illustrates that refugees gain their liminal legality only at the scale of the province. As a result, Turkey systematically creates a type of refugee illegality defined relative to internal borders. Unauthorized presence outside the province through illegalized, yet mundane, mobilities makes refugees susceptible to forced relocations to other provinces, detention centres, and refugee camps.