Afghans as invisible migrants: Is Turkey a destination or a bridge?

According to the United Nations Migration Report, there are 257 million immigrants in the world and this number is estimated to exceed 400 million in 30 years. Becoming a problem of the whole world, influx of immigrants have brought Turkey too as a transit route to the fore in recent years. But the essential question that needs to be asked about the immigrants whose numbers have increased saliently across the country is that: Do they see Turkey as a bridge or an ultimate destination? Wrongly used as refuge-ness, concept of immigration being identical with the Syrians in Turkey has led to ignoring immigrants from other nations. In fact, as far as irregular immigration towards Turkey is concerned, whereas the Syrians were in the first place in 2017, Afghans replaced the Syrians and took the first place by doubling their numbers in 2018. Similarly, in the first months of 2019 it was observed that the Afghans were in majority in the irregular immigration. In this qualitative study which addresses the Afghans' immigration to Turkey, a semi-structured interview with 17 irregular Afghan immigrants was conducted and why they came to Turkey and what they plan to do were examined. The study, which was prepared with the contributions of the observations made in Afghanistan previously visited and the interviews conducted with the Afghans in Bosnia, focuses on the causes of the immigration. It has been found that multi-identity structure and geography have been effective in migration besides the war that has been going on for 40 years, chaotic environment and financial reasons such as bride price. As a result of the interviews conducted, it is understood that Turkey is an ultimate destination for at least a certain segment and it is expected that this immigration caused by instability will continue for many years. Moreover, considering that economic prosperity in Turkey contributed a lot to this immigration, recent economic downturn in Turkey may reverse direction of the immigration.