TRANSFORMING CONSTRAINTS INTO STRATEGIES: THE ROLE OF DIFFERENT FORMS OF CAPITAL IN THE STATUS PASSAGE OF DOCUMENTED IRANIAN MIGRANTS IN ANKARA, TURKEY A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY YASEMİN AKİS KALAYLIOĞLU IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY MARCH 2016 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences ________________________ Prof. Dr. Meliha ALTUNIŞIK Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. _______________________ Prof. Dr. Sibel KALAYCIOĞLU Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ______________________ Prof. Dr. Helga RITTERSBERGER-TILIÇ Supervisor Examining Committee Members Prof. Dr. Gülay TOKSÖZ (ANKARA UNI, LAB. ECON) ________________ Prof. Dr. Helga RITTERSBERGER-TILIÇ (METU, SOC) ________________ Assoc. Prof. F. Umut BEŞPINAR (METU, SOC) ________________ Assoc. Prof. Didem DANIŞ (GALATASARAY UNI, SOC)________________ Assist. Prof. Çağatay TOPAL (METU, SOC) ________________ PLAGIARISM I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name: YASEMİN AKİS KALAYLIOĞLU Signature : iii ABSTRACT TRANSFORMING CONSTRAINTS INTO STRATEGIES: THE ROLE OF DIFFERENT FORMS OF CAPITAL IN THE STATUS PASSAGE OF DOCUMENTED IRANIAN MIGRANTS IN ANKARA, TURKEY Akis Kalaylıoğlu, Yasemin Ph.D., Department of Sociology Supervisor: Prof. Helga Rittersberger-Tılıç March 2016, 281 pages This thesis focuses on the documented (regular) migration experiences of Iranians in Ankara by drawing upon the sociological conceptual tools of Pierre Bourdieu. The aim of this study is to understand, first of all, whether Turkey can be considered as a good destination for documented migration from the perspective of Iranian migrants. The author raises the question of why Iranians leave their home country, and what it is that they are looking for in the host society, which in this study is conceptualized as a “better life and lifestyle”. Secondly, and more importantly, this study attempts to comprehend the roles of different forms of capital (economic, cultural, social and symbolic) and developed strategies in the status passage processes of documented Iranian migrants while they search for a better life and lifestyle. To achieve these aims, the study focuses on two different groups of Iranian migrants in Ankara, being temporary Iranian students and permanent settled Iranians, which allowed a comparison of their objectives, expectations and achieved goals in the host society. After analyzing the educational and occupational incorporation of documented Iranians into the host society, along with the transformation process of their constraints into strategies, the study attempts to comprehend the dispositions of the respondents within the “Iranian iv habitus” in Ankara to answer the question of whether Turkey fulfilled their expectations as a destination country, and on what basis. Keywords: Iranian migrants, Turkey, Regular Migration, Capital, Status Passage v ÖZ ZORLAMALARIN STRATEJİLERE DÖNÜŞÜMÜ: FARKLI SERMAYE BİÇİMLERİNİN ANKARA’DAKİ DÜZENLİ İRANLI GÖÇMENLERİN STATÜ GEÇİŞLERİNDEKİ ROLÜ Akis Kalaylıoğlu, Yasemin Doktora, Sosyoloji Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Prof. Helga Rittersberger-Tılıç Mart 2016, 281 sayfa Bu tez Pierre Bourdieu’nun kavramsal araçlarını kullanarak Ankara’da yaşayan İranlıların düzenli göç deneyimlerine odaklanmaktadır. Tezin amacı, ilk olarak, İranlı göçmenlerin bakış açısından Türkiye’nin iyi bir hedef ülke sayılıp sayılamayacağını anlamaktır. Yazar, İranlıların kendi ülkelerini terk etme nedenlerini ve yerleştikleri ülkeden ne beklediklerini araştırırken, tez kapsamında bunu “daha iyi yaşam ve yaşam biçimi” olarak kavramlaştırmaktadır. Bu bağlamda tezin ikinci ve daha önemli amacı, İranlı göçmenlerin daha iyi bir yaşam ve yaşam biçimi ararken hedef ülkede yaşadıkları statü geçişi süreçlerinde, farklı sermaye biçimlerinin (ekonomik, kültürel, toplumsal ve sembolik) ve geliştirdikleri stratejilerin rolünü anlamaya çalışmaktır. Bu amaçla, geçici konumdaki İranlı öğrenciler ve de kalıcı konumdaki yerleşik İranlılar olmak üzere Ankara’da yaşayan iki farklı göçmen grubuyla görüşmeler yapılmıştır. Bu iki grup sayesinde İranlı göçmenlerin amaçları, beklentileri ve de gerçekleştirdikleri hedefler arasında bir karşılaştırma yapmak mümkün olmuştur. Çalışmada, görüşülen düzenli İranlı göçmenlerin Ankara’ya eğitimsel ve mesleki uyumu analiz edilirken, zorlukların üstesinden gelmek üzere nasıl stratejiler geliştirdikleri de incelenmiştir. Çalışma, katılımcıların hedef ülkeden beklentilerini Türkiye’de karşılayıp karşılayamadıklarını vi ve bunun nedenlerini, Ankara’da “İranlı Habitusu” içerisinde gösterdikleri çeşitli beğeniler ve eğilimler üzerinden inceleyerek son bulmaktadır. Anahtar Kelimeler: İranlı Göçmenler, Türkiye, Düzenli Göç, Sermaye, Statü Geçişi vii DEDICATION To my Akis family, but especially to my mother Neş’e who I believe is following me on my journey, although I cannot follow her on hers. viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Prof. Helga Rittersberger-Tılıç for her valuable guidance and academic support throughout the dissertation process. She has made every step easier, particularly at the most stressful times, and gave me sincere encouragement when I needed her guiding hand. I would also like to thank committee members Prof. Gülay Toksöz, Assoc. Prof. Umut Beşpınar, Assoc. Prof. Didem Danış and Assist. Prof. Çağatay Topal, all of whom contributed to the thesis with their insightful questions and comments. I’m also thankful to the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey for awarding me with National Scholarship Program for PhD Students (2214-A). Their generosity allowed me to spend three months in the University of California, Berkeley in the United States where I was able to write the most important chapters of this thesis. The writing process of the dissertation was both long and painful, and coincided with very difficult times in Turkey, and I will never forget the feeling of having to return to writing after the three tragic bombings in Ankara over the last year. I was, and remain, lucky to have dear friends who helped me to overcome my feelings of desperation when I needed their support, love and solidarity the most. To begin with, Evun Okumuş and İmge Yaman have always been there for me, offering maturity, kindness and laughter when I needed cheering up. Special thanks in this regard go to Aslı Çoban, who has been a mainstay of support, always encouraging me both academically and emotionally with her wise thoughts and admirable insights. My time working at METU was facilitated by many colleagues to whom I owe a great debt of gratitude namely Atakan Büke, Aksu Akçaoğlu, Çiğdem Manap, Elif Uyar, Ruşen Işık and Reco Cemal Akgün. I am also grateful to my feminist network in Ankara for their existence, and especially to Semra Canbulat who helped me to reach the key respondents in this study. I also owe many thanks to ix Agah Hazır for putting me in touch with many Iranian respondents who enriched my research. Zeynep Karakılıç and Ayşenur Talat, my dissertation sisters, and also Neslihan Demirkol who joined this dissertation sisterhood in the last year, brightened my darkest days and reminded me constantly that it would soon be over. My Oxfordians, Seda Köymen and Burcu Özdemir, provided me with opportunities to relax when talking about our dissertations, and I am happy to report that we made good on our promise to each other to finish our PhDs, one after the other. Finally, my heartfelt thanks goes to Mahir Kalaylıoğlu who turned my dull and monotone writing days into joyful times. Frankly, I cannot begin to express what his support means to me, and so I draw upon the words of Virginia Woolf to help me express my feelings: He has been in every way all that anyone could be. x TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM ............................................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................... iv ÖZ .................................................................................................................................... vi DEDICATION ........................................................................................................... viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................... ix TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................ xi LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ........................................................................ xv CHAPTER 1.INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 1 2.MIGRATION LAWS OF TURKEY AND STRATEGIES OF IRANIANS TO REMAIN “DOCUMENTED” .................................... 16 2.1. Introduction ...................................................................................................