Border Crossing

Policy Brief: Refugee Women’s Experiences of Maternal Healthcare Services in Türkiye

2025-04-07T16:04:40+00:00

We live in times of unprecedented mass migration at the international level. The cross-border movements of people take a form of forced migration which is a humanitarian and human rights issue. Forced displacement of people creates challenges and increases vulnerabilities as a result of humanitarian needs. The basic needs of refugees, such as healthcare, are compromised by the absence of capabilities to access and/or receive care in the host countries. The root causes of this issue are multi-faceted and may stem from the refugees’ status, cultural background, societal positioning and structure of the host country’s health system. The ecological model to analyse the experiences of refugee women’s healthcare system demonstrates the challenges produced within a mixture of interactions at macro, meso and micro levels of social and political determinants. A precarious and temporary legal status of refugee women coupled with a lack of economic means impacts their spatial interactions with host institutions for receiving health care in the host countries. The Brief sheds light on this issue through an intersectional empirical study of refugee women’s lived experiences of maternal care arguing that it is a complex process comprising a multilayered form of relationship with primary, secondary and tertiary health services. The policy brief provides an analytical and methodological framework for: addressing the negative impacts of forced migration on refugee women; and uncovering the significance of the ‘rights’ and ‘entitlements’ (or ‘lack of’) of refugee women in the eyes of healthcare professionals in receiving basic healthcare in Türkiye. The Policy Brief transcends temporary solutions and explains why refugee women’s access to health care should also be framed within human rights and an ecological model for robust management of health provision to refugees; and why long-term structural solutions can benefit both vulnerable refugee populations and host societies. The Brief develops recommendations for improving strategies to tackle the societal and structural challenges that hinder maternal care access and provision for refugees. The proposed recommendations aim to enhance quality health provision by breaking the barriers between refugees and health providers; a holistic model of integration of refugees whether it is temporary or permanent; and generating space for interactions to increase the health literacy of refugee women.

"About Dry Grasses" and Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Rhetoric

2025-06-01T10:12:25+00:00

In this study, I analyse Nuri Bilge Ceylan's About Dry Grasses through the lens of contemporary global and local politics. After briefly summarizing the plot, I explore the themes of illiberalism and anti-intellectualism. These issues are examined in relation to anti-individualism, human nature, tribalism, anti-universalism, anti-secularism, moral values, family, rituals, media, and post-truth communication. Once these concepts are clearly established, I move on to a discussion within the context of Turkey, arguing that the Turkish case offers multiple perspectives on these two themes. It can be seen that when examined within the framework of these notions and topics, Turkey’s current political and social situation is very close to illiberalism. Finally, I draw connections to About Dry Grasses, suggesting that Nuri Bilge Ceylan, whether intentionally or unintentionally, employs a rhetorical framework in which illiberalism and anti-intellectualism play a significant role.

Governing Through the Language of Vulnerability: IOM’s Role in EU Border Externalization

2024-11-25T20:25:11+00:00

This paper investigates the extent to which the discourses of vulnerability developed by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have been employed in migration management practices as part of the European Union (EU) border externalization agenda. The project brings together a close engagement with the literature on vulnerability in migration contexts, theories of humanitarian governance, and critiques of border externalization, to argue that the increasing use of the language of vulnerability in the field of forced migration has generated a hierarchy in classifications of displaced people with those most vulnerable deemed worthy of international protections or assistance and those constructed as less-than vulnerable or invulnerable excluded from any form of relief. Through a close reading of IOM’s migrant vulnerability framework, the paper contends that vulnerability becomes a key term through which the organization elaborates its own humanitarian governance regime focused on identifying, tracking, classifying, and controlling people on the move. The complex institutional practices, frameworks, and assessments regarding vulnerability developed by the IOM have been coopted by what I refer to as the EU governmentality of migration. Throughout IOM’s participation in EU border externalization strategies, including returns, securitized borderwork, and containment, vulnerability is employed as a key migration governance mechanism.