Guest Editors’ Introduction: Turkey’s Diaspora Governance Policies from the Past to the Present

Abstract

Diasporas have become a topic of academic and political discussion and interest since 2000. Until recently, most diaspora research has focused on the ways the states in the Global North ‘ receive ’ outsiders but has devoted limited scrutiny to the role of sending states in shaping opportunity structures abroad. 1 The recently growing literature on diaspora politics draw our attention to the rise of state-led diaspora engagement initiatives which aim at cultivating, (re)building, (re)shaping and (de/re)mobilizing diasporas. Currently, more than one hundred states have established forms of diaspora engagement policies and institutions, with a variety of motivations. 2 Scholars try to understand the development of diaspora-engagement policies cultivated by political actors in the homeland from various disciplines including international relations, political science and sociology. 3 How these policies are cultivated and transformed through time 4 and their