African migrations toward Turkey: beyond the stepping stone

The notion of transit migration emerged in policy discourse during the 1990s. Various meanings have been assigned to the notion of transit migrant or transit migration’. In this paper we argue that these are constructed categories which are unable to address fully or to describe a range of complex experiences, political contexts and global realities. We first argue that the construction of transit has primarily taken place within the context of European securitization policy. We next expose the limits of such a construction in the light of African migrant experiences in Turkey. Our empirical data shows that while the category of transit migrant generated out of the European securitization agenda can fit some of these experiences, there are also distinctive African migrant experiences in Turkey which cannot be stretched easily into this category and thus it becomes an overloaded category. Furthermore, we aim to highlight what we identify as a new migratory system stretched between Turkey and Africa, these modalities of operation and the expected changes for Turkey.