Nationalism and migration: the post-1950 Balkan immigrants from Yugoslavia

Abstract

This thesis examines the relationship between nationalism, emigration and identity in Turkey in the post- 1950 era. It studies the ways in which the immigrants define their nationality, legitimize their emigration to Turkey. For this reason, it first gives historical background from the secondary resources and memories about the immigration from Balkans to Turkey before the 1950s. This thesis is mainly based on oral history that includes twenty interviewees' daily experiences and narritives boyh in Yugoslavia and then in Turkey. It studies the changing nationalities of Balkan immigrants through the effect of Muslim and Turkish identity. In this manner, immigrants tend to base their nationality dating back to the Ottoman Empire times. Moreover, this study aims to illustrate that although nationalism can be created, it has been materialized by political, historical, economical reason, this thesis claims that it is not an immiginary entity. As a result, this thesis exanines at first the difficulties of being an immigrant through analyzing the post 1950 Yugoslavian immigrants' experiences. At second, it studies the relations between Balkan identities with Turkish nationalism. It considers Balkan identies under the concept of being from Turkey. In the same manner, this thesis contributes to the literature throgh giving the example of Balkan people within the framework of the immigration to Turkey and the constitution of national identity in Turkey.