Foreign migration policy of the Democratic Party (1950-1960)

The Republic of Turkey, which was founded upon the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and its historical legacy, took over the issue of immigration, as well as many other issues, from the Ottoman Empire. The founder of the Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, laid the foundations of the Republic of Turkey, which was established in 1923, with the aim of nationalization policy, creating a national identity among citizens and reducing ethnic/religious differences. For this reason, he got rid of different ethnic and religious elements and encouraged people with the same language, religion and ethnicity to migrate to Turkey. During this period, especially the Turks from the Balkans migrated to Anatolia, and with these migrations it was aimed to compensate for the losses suffered in the wars and to revitalize economic life. The mass migrations that occurred after World War II affected many countries worldwide. During this period, immigrants came to Turkey from Bulgaria, and efforts were made to manage the migration through policies and practices aimed at the incoming migrants. The arrival of a large number of immigrants from Bulgaria was a significant humanitarian crisis for Turkey. This migration generally took place due to political and economic reasons targeting the Turkish minority. Turkey's ability to welcome these immigrants and settle them well was the result of experience gained from years of managing migrant settlements and the accumulation of previous policy implementations. After such large waves of migration, Turkey has followed a successful policy in settling immigrants appropriately and adapting them to society. Steps taken on issues such as integration of immigrants into society, language teaching, vocational training and employment have become a part of Turkey's immigration policies. These processes have contributed to Turkey embracing cultural diversity and actively including immigrants into society. These migrations to Turkey, which started in 1923, continued during the Democratic Party Era, which came to power on May 14, 1950. In this study, we will discuss the migrations to Turkey during the Democratic Party Period, which was in power between 1950 and 1960. These migrations were made from Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkestan and Hungary. Among the main reasons for migration from these countries are the political, economic and ethnic difficulties experienced in the country - as in previous years. In our study, the Democratic Party's settlement policies for these immigrants coming to Turkey, especially the adaptation process of Kazakh Turks coming from East Turkestan, and the problems of immigrants and immigration after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution will be examined. It will also be discussed how these migration waves, which affect the demographic structure of Turkey, affect the economic, cultural and social adaptation of immigrants.