Migration as Nation-Building: Yugoslav Migration to Turkey Between World Wars

• In Event: Migration and Multiple Mobilities in Southeastern Europe, 19th and 20th Centuries

Abstract

This paper focuses on the interwar migration of Muslims from Yugoslavia to Turkey - migration that became an important element in nation building processes for both states newly created after World War I. Overcoming their differences, all Balkan states and Turkey ultimately pursued political and economic regional policies of normalization that also regulated travel and migrant properties. Furthermore, Balkan states were interested in concluding population transfer agreements with Turkey, considering the perceived success of the Greek-Turkish population exchange, in reimagining their post-Ottoman trajectories. Based on Turkish and Yugoslav sources, this study analyzes the significance of migration in nation-state building processes, and the roles migrants came to play in crafting the national character and state policies of their new homeland well into the twentieth century.

Author

• Leyla Amzi-Erdogdular, Rutgers, The State U of New Jersey