The relations between internal migration and public policy in Turkey

Internal migration is the movement of people within the borders of the country resulting as a new residence. Internal migration creates positive or negative outcomes. Therefore, it must be governed by the public authority. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between internal migration with central government expenditure policies in Turkey and to develop policy recommendations after determining if internal migration is a manageable phenomenon by public policy. In this study, first, the historical evolution of internal migration in Turkey and the relation between government expenditure and internal migration from 2008 to 2017 have been examined. Secondly, the relationship between internal migration and public expenditures between the years 2014 and 2017 is estimated by the gravity model of migration with many levels of fixed effects. The data used in the analyses come from address-based population registration system (2018) and the central and local government expenditure data obtained from government budget statistics database (2018). The findings of the study show that internal migration in Turkey has a positive relation with population and a negative relation with distance. Having a relative, a townsman or an acquaintance in the migrated province positively affects the internal migration. Within the scope of the functional classification of public expenditures, education expenditures have the highest positive impact on internal migration. Education expenditures are followed by public order and security expenditures. This research has reached the conclusion that the policies related to the spatial distribution must be produced before the internal migration movements take place. Based on this result, the five policy recommendations for internal migration in Turkey are presented.