MARS: Non-Western Migration Regimes in a Global Perspective

by Saara Koikkalainen, Karelian Institute, University of Eastern Finland

I had the pleasure of visiting the American University in Cairo (AUC) on a MARS project secondment in November-December 2025. Apart from knowing that Egypt is a key regional hub of migration, my knowledge of the country before the visit was limited, so I knew the experience would be very educational, both personally and professionally. Egypt occupies an important position along key migration routes connecting East Africa and the Horn of Africa to Europe, and it is situated in an unstable geopolitical setting. There is a civil war in Sudan to the south, instability in Libya to the west, and Israel’s war on Gaza to the east.

From Europe’s perspective, Egypt appears as a gateway for irregular migration to Europe. The European Union (EU) sees the country very much in this light, and it has been collaborating with Egypt since 2016 to stem the flow of migrants to Europe via the Central Mediterranean route. From 2024 to 2027, the EU is investing significantly in Egypt. The funding includes €5 billion in loans with favourable terms, €1.8 billion in additional investments to be mobilised, and €600 million in additional grants, of which €200 million is earmarked for migration management. Thus, these amounts are more significant than the previous EU efforts to stem the arrival of irregular migrants, including the so-called 2015 EU-Turkey deal, i.e. the EU Facility for Refugees in Turkey, which was initially worth €3 billion, with an additional €3 billion later. 

A key factor in this generosity is the EU’s fear of a large number of displaced persons that might head towards Europe via Egypt. As of December 2025, 1,085,000 refugees and asylum seekers are registered with UNHCR Egypt, with 822,000 originating from Sudan, where a brutal civil war broke out in April 2023. Not all those fleeing the conflict have registered with the UNHCR, and the Government of Egypt states that the country hosts up to 1,5 million displaced Sudanese. The world’s most damaging displacement crisis is visible in the streets of the greater Cairo area and especially in Faisal (Giza Governorate), where the newly arrived have settled in the neighbourhoods where many Sudanese were living already before the war.

During my stay at AUC, I was fortunate to be invited to several events and field visits, where the situation of the Sudanese in Egypt was discussed. The first was a conference organised by CEDEJ Khartoum and the French Institute in Egypt, called Lives in Displacement: Sudanese migration in Egypt since April 2023 (November 12-13, 2025). Very suitably for the themes of the MARS project, my AUC contact persons, Assistant Professor Gerda Heck and Assistant Professor Amira Ahmed, gave an excellent keynote talk titled ‘Changing dynamics of migration in the Global South – Egypt as an example’. The program was a captivating deep dive into how long-standing transnational networks and innovative coping mechanisms were used at a time of an unprecedented conflict.

Another very interesting experience was getting to know the work of the Tafawol Association, which was founded in 2016 as a refugee-led community organisation. From a small initiative to support children with special needs within local schools, it has evolved into a multi-site, integrated institution offering comprehensive services to support refugees and migrants. The organisation runs a community school that follows the Sudanese curricula and serves more than 1,000 children, for example. Along with the knowledgeable staff of the organisation, another of my AUC contacts, Elena Habersky, was kind enough to introduce me to the work of Tafawol, as she is volunteering at the association as part of her PhD thesis fieldwork.

Another key event during my time in Cairo was the closing seminar of the Traces of Mobility project (November 30^th, 2025). The international project examined migrants’ trajectories between Sudan, the Horn of Africa, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and Italy, in the context of war and political and structural violence. In such situations, migrants’ voices and memories are often ignored and marginalised, even though they represent important aspects of the cultural history of those on the move. The project showcased how it is possible and very fruitful to combine migration research with participatory approaches and cultural and musical events and performances that also benefit the migrant communities in question. 

My two-month stay in Cairo went too quickly to my liking, as Egypt, as a country, is so diverse and full of history that it would take a much longer stay to begin to understand how migration shapes the country today. I am deeply grateful to the MARS team for this opportunity and especially to Gerda, Amira, and Elena for their kind help and incredible friendship. We will continue collaboration for sure in the future.

February 12, 2026

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John Narh

I had the opportunity to visit Marmara University for a secondment through the MARS: Non-Western Migration Regimes in a Global Perspective project from September to December 2025. My journey or perhaps, migration, since I stayed in Istanbul for more than three months, was marked by incredible experience and assistance. The following are some of my experiences.

Since Ghana and Turkey have no bilateral free movement agreement, except for their diplomatic passport holders who can entre each country at will for a limited period, my migration started with visa application to the Turkey Embassy in Accra. With visa support letters from Lund University and Marmara University, the Coordinating institution for MARS and my hosting institution respectively, I was granted a 90-days visa. I had to apply for a short-term resident permit to legalise my stay for the last month, which I was granted with extra one month. It is important to mention that the documents require for the short-term permit could discourage many people from legalising their stay, especially for just a month as in my case.

Getting accommodation for a short-term stay was challenging. Yusuf Emre Kaya, the project assistant, whom I cannot thank enough, booked the Guest House at the Göztepe campus of Marmara University for me. I stayed there for a few days until I established contacts with fellow Africans in Istanbul, through whom I got a room to rent in a 3+1 apartment at Mecidiyeköy in the Şişli district of Istanbul. I prefer this arrangement because it was less expensive and it provided me with access to a kitchen to cook my food. So, I stayed in the European side of Turkey and crossed the Bosphorus each day to the office at Başıbüyük campus at the Asian side of the country. Mecidiyeköy, like other parts of Istanbul, is always bustling and constantly on the move, and Taksim Square with its famous Istiklal Street, is just 2 stops away by the Metro. In fact, I cannot agree any better with Shakhlo Safarova who also had her secondment in Istanbul and wrote that “Istanbul is a city that defies easy description”.

My host, Prof. Dr Erhan Doğan, provided an office space for me with my personal key and applied for access card to Başıbüyük campus, which Prof. İbrahim Mazlum picked for me and other visiting scholars. So, I had access to both Göztepe and Başıbüyük campuses of Marmara University. I was also assigned a Marmara University email address. My host was also supportive, not only for the progress of my research, but also, for my wellbeing.

During my secondment, I researched on forced displacement in Anglophone West Africa with a focus on displacement in Ghana. I have drafted an article with a working title, “Same fate but different outcomes? Addressing the challenges of displaced persons in Ghana”, which is earmarked for the Open Research Europe journal. Besides, I attended a joint methodology workshop, organised by my host, Prof. Dr. Erhan Doğan and his research team where I presented on the topic, “Understanding Translocality through Multi-Sited Sequential Explanatory Mixed Methods: Theory and Practice”.

John Narh presenting during the Joint Methodology Workshop. Photo credit: Yusuf Emre Kaya

I am indebted to many for my secondment. First, to the European Commission for funding the MARS project. My next appreciation goes to Lund University, particularly Chekhros Kilichova, for coordination and assistance. I am also grateful to my Director, Prof. Mary B. Setrana for endorsing my secondment. To my host and his colleagues at the Department of Political Science and International Relations, I say thank you. He has also connected me to other scholars at the department and the host for MARS at Istanbul Medipol University. Besides, my host and I are looking beyond MARS and have started working on a Memorandum of Understanding for a collaboration between the Centre for Migration Studies, University of Ghana, and the Department of Political Science and International Relations, Marmara University. Other visiting researchers I met were equally supportive. They were always available for discussion and sharing ideas. Yusuf and his colleagues, Sude, Merve and Bura were always ready to assist me with even extra-secondment activities such as exploring Istanbul, and I am grateful for their souvenirs. Hardly a day went by without me saying “thank you” to my host, Yusuf or colleague visiting scholars for a kind gesture extended to me. If “thank you” were a commodity, I would have depleted my stock of it in Istanbul from the assistance I received from my host, Professor Erhan, the research assistant, Yusuf, and fellow visiting researchers.

January 20, 2026

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by Dr Leander Kandilige, Centre for Migration Studies, University of Ghana

I was excited by the framing of the MARS project around “Non-Western Migration Regimes in a Global Perspective”. This is apt given the recent advocacy on balancing the academic scales by encouraging co-production of knowledge as well as decolonising migration research. Narratives on skewed Euro-North American centric theorisation and methodological approaches to the study of migration have dominated academic discourse and conferences but few practical actions have been taken to actually walk the talk. Lamentation or giving voice is good in terms of shining a torch on a neocolonial framing of what and whose knowledge is good knowledge, but this is insufficient in realigning epistemological and ontological eurocentrism.

The MARS fellowship at Leiden University was an excellent opportunity for me to meet, interact, and to challenge the broad range of knowledges that exist in Social Science, especially in the area of Migration Studies. I reached out to a migration scholar and MARS team member, Dr. Katharina Natter, to serve as host during my stay in the Netherlands. Planning for my fellowship was dominated by the difficulty in getting accommodation in Leiden or even neighbouring communities. The advertised rent charges were way above what the fellowship funding could afford! I ended up renting a bed in a one-bedroom flat of an old acquaintance of mine in Den Haag (the Hague) as my accommodation for my two-month stay in the Netherlands. This was less than ideal but luckily, my proactive host quickly guided me on how to navigate the Leiden University system (both the Leiden and the Hague campuses). This included registration for a Leiden University card (popularly known as a LU Card), access to the university email platform, keys to the shared space at the FSW building in Leiden, participation in free lunches on the first Thursday of the month, lunchtime seminars as well as free tea/coffee at the faculty common room, among others. Lunch time seminars addressed very interested topics including “The Lies that Bind: The Politics of Official Deception about Police Killing” by Prof. Nicholas Rush Smith; “Social distance in International Relations” by Prof. Hilde van Meegdenburg and “Cartel Parties in Africa – A Research Project” by Prof. Matthijs Bogaards. For instance, the conceptualisation of “cartel parties in Africa” was very curious. It fed into narratives and discourses of ‘Africa as a country’. As a diverse continent with different political histories and party-political experimentations across time and space, this seminar provoked a lively discussion of the author’s approach to studying Africa as though the continent is a monolithic entity that is frozen in time.

To share my research, we first tried to secure a slot to present at the Leiden Interdisciplinary Migration Seminar (LIMS) series, which unfortunately was not possible in the end. However, through the tireless efforts of my host (Dr. Katharina Natter), I secured a slot to present my work to faculty members and students at the Institute of Political Science, Leiden University. The seminar was on the topic “Irregularisation across scales: From international to internal irregular migration in Ghana”.    

I noted that global literature on migration has largely been shaped by strenuous attempts at delineating categories of migration and affixing labels to apparently facilitate migration governance and control. I observed that while the regularity, or not, of international cross-border migration easily lends itself to categorisation because sovereign state laws are evoked against non-citizens, it is more complicated when such migrations are confined within a single state. Drawing on a large set of qualitative and quantitative data, my paper (co-authored with Dr. Cathrine Talleraas) examines how Ghanaian state agencies, civil society organisations and local communities conceptualise the migration of young adults from the north to the south of Ghana, particularly those performing hazardous or informal jobs. These internal movements, though fully permitted under Ghana’s constitution, are often framed by institutions as “irregular.”

This raises important conceptual challenges:  what constitutes the perceived “irregularity” in these cases? Is it a question of legal status and border crossing practices, or of risks, hardships or social deviance? I averred that these tensions are sharpened when local interpretations of irregular movement intersect with globally circulating migration discourses – often shaped by institutions in the Global North. I argued that international policy frameworks and donor-funded initiatives have helped entrench normative associations between “irregular migration” and cross-border mobility marked by danger, and specifically migrations that represent a political challenge in receiving societies, e.g. in Europe. I noted that these framings are increasingly internalised and reinterpreted in local contexts, where they are applied to diverse migration practices – including, as in Ghana, to internal mobility and this falls outside formal regulation.

In this paper, we treat “irregular migration” not as a fixed or self-evident category, but as a label that is actively applied by institutional actors – especially within migration governance and civil society actors. We introduce the concept of “irregularisation” to describe how internal migrants are categorised as irregular based on perceived risk, danger or social or moral deviance, rather than on legal grounds. Our analytical focus is on how these framings are constructed, operationalised, and contested. Unlike international migration where illegal activities, such as unauthorised border crossing, overstaying of visas, or violation of entry conditions, can lead to the irregularisation of migrants’ status, we find a narrower trend that plays out in contexts in Ghana. Our research suggests that migration by unaccompanied minors, migration without permission of parents/guardians and migration to engage in jobs that might negatively affect the health and wellbeing of migrants are irregularised, despite not breaching any laws. I received constructive feedback from participants at the seminar where some sought clarification on why state authorities choose to adopt the term ‘irregular’ internal migration, a suggestion to expand the discussion on “street level bureaucracy” among others. These inputs and questions are being used to strengthen the paper.

Beyond the seminar presentation, the fellowship enabled me to participate in related academic encounters that focus on levelling the playing field on projecting knowledges and epistemes from a multipolar world as equally worthy. In line with this, I attended a meeting of the Steering Committee of the International Panel on Migration (IPM) in Berlin, Germany on the 28^th and 29^th of October 2025. The IPM aims to be an action-oriented scientific organisation, rooted in scholarly rigour and collective intelligence. It will translate the results of academic research on migration and mobility into public debate and, in doing so, inform and influence public understanding, discourse, and policymaking. This helps to deal with the growing disconnect between science, public perception and understanding, and political discourse in the field of migration. Such an approach helps to overcome the fragmentation of scientific communities, and the marginalisation of critical and non-Western knowledge and promote academic freedom. Moreover, it addresses the instrumentalisation of migration in politics and the erosion of trust in scientific knowledge. Ultimately, by structuring and amplifying a pluralistic, reflexive, and globally representative scientific voice, the IPM aspires to reassert the legitimacy and utility of sciencein one of the most contentious domains of national politics and global governance.The vison of the IPM neatly aligns with the tenets of the MARS Project.

To expand critical conversations on bridging the gap in migration scholarship, I served as a panelist at an online seminar on the 14^th of November 2025 organized by the Institute for Migration Studies, Lebanese American University and the Refugee Law Initiative, School of Advanced Study, University of London on the theme “Ethical futures in research and publishing: centering ethics, access and equity in refugee studies”. This provided an opportunity for frank conversations on ethical research in refugee studies, publication challenges faced by global southern scholars and the role of diverse editorial boards in assuaging the growing gulf between academics based on where they are geographically located.  

Furthermore, in the spirit of exploring ways of promoting theorisation and innovative global-southern focused methodological approaches, I attended a workshop at the Georgetown University in Qatar entitled “Migration studies from the Global South: rethinking theory and method”. This took place on the 16^th and 17^th of November 2025. I had the privilege of leading discussions on unpacking the migration-development nexus from a global southern perspective. This workshop aims to lead to the formation of research clusters across global southern countries on topical migration research issues and as a springboard for more equitable academic collaborations with global northern academics.

Ultimately, the fellowship facilitated discussions on possible collaborations with faculty and students at Leiden University who are carrying out research into different aspects of migration studies. I engaged with faculty and students of both the Institute of Political Science and the African Studies Centre. These discussions have helped to map out areas of common research interest that could form the basis for joint research projects or grant applications. Areas under consideration include research on labour migrations to the Gulf States, migration and climate change in West Africa, regional integration and the ECOWAS Free Movement protocol, and institutional frameworks for managing incidents of human trafficking in Ghana. Two students from Leiden University will visit Ghana to conduct fieldwork, under my supervision, for a ten-week period.

December 25, 2025

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By Nilufar Khudayarova
Researcher, Kurultai Research and Consulting (Tashkent)

Arrival

The first days in Istanbul were filled with light, noise, and an unexpected sense of recognition. Walking through Aksaray, I could hear Uzbek and Kyrgyz words mingling with Turkish, Russian, and Arabic — fragments of home stitched into a foreign city. Yet behind the familiar language lay unfamiliar realities.

My secondment at the Özbek Kadın Hakları Derneği, a small yet vital association supporting migrant women, soon revealed the other side of Istanbul’s cosmopolitan promise. Beneath the glittering skyline, hundreds of Central Asian women live in conditions of uncertainty — domestic workers without contracts, cleaners in hotels, caregivers who rarely rest, women who came chasing opportunity but found themselves bound by silence.

Encounters and Conversations

During my fieldwork, I met women from Samarkand, Andijan, Osh, Bishkek, and Mary — their journeys different, their stories uncannily alike. Many arrived legally, on tourist visas. They found jobs through acquaintances, but legality dissolved when papers expired. From that point on, they entered what one woman called “the shadow life” — a world without protection, where everything depends on the mercy of employers, landlords, and the police.

Several spoke of harassment: an employer’s son entering their room at night; a landlord demanding “extra payments” in exchange for silence; verbal abuse on public transport. Others described subtler forms of control — withheld wages, sudden dismissals, or being told not to appear “too visible.”

Listening to these women, I was reminded of Mine Eder’s concept of “the violence of uncertainty” in her study of female migrant labour in Turkey. She wrote that neoliberal economies depend on migrants’ flexibility while keeping them perpetually insecure — “wanted but not welcome.” The phrase echoed through every conversation.

Precarity and Power

Istanbul’s migration regime is built on contradiction. It invites mobility while punishing overstaying; it celebrates the image of the “hard-working guest” yet denies her rights. The domestic work sector exemplifies this paradox.

As Eder (2015) and others show, post-Soviet women became the backbone of Turkey’s informal care economy after the 1990s. They entered private homes to fill the vacuum left by a shrinking welfare state. Today, Uzbek and Kyrgyz women continue this invisible labour — feeding children, caring for the elderly, sustaining comfort for families they can never fully join.

Their conditions reflect a broader economic logic. Neoliberal reforms turned care into a commodity and migrants into the cheapest suppliers. “We take care of everyone,” one woman told me quietly, “but no one takes care of us.”

Between Fear and Solidarity

At the Uzbek Women’s Association, I observed how women rebuild forms of protection from below. They organise small language lessons, exchange information about safe employers, and accompany each other to hospitals or police stations. These may seem like modest gestures, but in a city where legal aid is expensive and trust is scarce, they amount to a collective survival mechanism.

Here, gender and migration intersect in complex ways. Women’s vulnerability to exploitation is shaped not only by their irregular status but also by cultural expectations from home: to remain silent, to “avoid shame,” to endure. Some internalise blame for what they experience; others quietly resist through solidarity and small acts of defiance — refusing abusive work, supporting a friend, or simply choosing to speak.

Lucy Williams, Emel Coşkun and Selmin Kaşka (2020) capture this duality well in Women, Migration and Asylum in Turkey: migrant women live “at the threshold between dependence and autonomy,” constantly negotiating dignity within systems designed to overlook them.

Reflections on Doing Fieldwork

For me, this secondment was not only research but confrontation — with privilege, with empathy, with the limits of what observation can achieve. I came as a researcher; I left with an unsettling awareness of complicity. We all benefit, directly or indirectly, from invisible labour.

Working alongside the women of the Özbek Kadın Hakları Derneği showed me that migration governance is not simply written in law books. It is enacted in kitchens, stairwells, and narrow apartments — where legality, morality, and survival intertwine.

In academic language, we call this vernacular governance; in lived experience, it is simply life.

After Istanbul

As I return to Tashkent, I carry the voices of those women with me — not as data but as reminders. Their stories illuminate the need for deeper cooperation between Central Asian and Turkish institutions: legal counselling, labour rights awareness, and safe-migration channels designed with gender sensitivity.

But perhaps more importantly, they demand that we, as scholars, listen differently — not as observers of “migrant vulnerability” but as witnesses to endurance, creativity, and quiet resistance.

In Istanbul, I learned that invisibility is never total. Even in the margins, women find ways to be seen — and to see each other.

References

• Eder, M. (2015). “Turkey’s Neoliberal Transformation and Changing Migration Regime: The Case of Female Migrant Workers.” In Social Transformation and Migration, Palgrave Macmillan.
• Williams, L., Coşkun, E., & Kaşka, S. (eds.) (2020). Women, Migration and Asylum in Turkey: Developing Gender-Sensitivity in Migration Research, Policy and Practice. Palgrave Macmillan.

December 19, 2025

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By Shakhlo Safarova, Researcher at Tashkent State University of Law

Introduction: A Journey Across Borders

From October 2024 to April 2025, I had the opportunity to spend six months in Istanbul, Türkiye, as part of my research secondment under the MARS project (Non-Western Migration Regimes in a Global Perspective).

As a researcher and senior lecturer at Tashkent State University of Law, my academic work focuses on human rights, migration law, and international cooperation. The secondment allowed me to take this research beyond theory—to the lived realities of Uzbek women migrants navigating life, work, and identity in Türkiye.

My host organization was the Ozbek Kadin Haklari Dernegi, also known as the Uzbek Society for the Protection of Uzbek Women, based in Istanbul. This civil society organization provides critical support to Uzbek women migrants in Türkiye, many of whom work in domestic service, textile industries, and other informal sectors.

What began as a professional research assignment soon evolved into a profound personal experience—one that reshaped the way I understand law, gender, and migration in practice.

Istanbul: Where Worlds Meet

Istanbul is a city that defies easy description. It is both ancient and modern, bustling and contemplative, familiar and foreign. For a visiting researcher like me, it offered a unique vantage point from which to observe how migration operates not merely as a policy issue, but as a human condition.

Every neighborhood told a story: Fatih with its traditional atmosphere and diaspora communities, especially Kumkapi and Yenikapi quarters with their migrant-concentrated neighborhouds; and Üsküdar, where I met several Uzbek women who had lived in Türkiye for more than a decade. Each encounter deepened my understanding of how migration is experienced differently depending on one’s gender, class, and legal status.

At first, the scale of Istanbul was overwhelming. But soon, I found myself drawn into its rhythm—the morning calls to prayer, the constant motion of the Bosphorus ferries, and the quiet strength of women who, far from home, were building new lives despite immense challenges.

The Host Organization: A Lifeline for Uzbek Women

My daily work centered around the Ozbek Kadin Haklari Dernegi, where I collaborated with local activists, social workers, and community volunteers. The organization provides legal consultations, translation assistance, psychological support, shelter, and advocacy for migrant women.

Through my engagement with the staff and the women who came to seek help, I saw firsthand how community-based organizations fill critical gaps left by state institutions. For many Uzbek migrants, the Dernek is not just a support center—it is a refuge, a trusted space where they can share their experiences without fear of stigma or deportation.

Together with the organization’s team, I participated in several community meetings and informal workshops on women’s rights, labor rights, and navigating Turkish legal procedures. These encounters offered not only data for my research but also moments of deep human connection.

Fieldwork: Listening to Voices Often Unheard

The core of my secondment was my fieldwork among Uzbek female migrants living and working in Istanbul. Using qualitative methods—interviews, focus groups, and participant observation—I explored the legal, social, and emotional dimensions of migration.

The stories I heard were both heartbreaking and inspiring. Many women had come to Türkiye with high hopes—to earn enough to support their families, pay for their children’s education, or escape unemployment back home. However, upon arrival, they often encountered exploitative working conditions:

• Long working hours without formal contracts or fair wages,
• Restrictions on mobility or confiscation of passports by employers,
• Verbal and physical abuse,
• And in some cases, sexual harassment and gender-based violence.

These experiences revealed how migrant status, gender, and informal employment intersect to produce deep vulnerabilities. Many women lacked access to legal remedies because of language barriers, fear of retaliation, or lack of awareness about their rights.

Yet, amid these difficulties, I also witnessed powerful examples of resilience and solidarity. Women formed informal networks to share housing, exchange job opportunities, or care for each other’s children. Some even became advocates within their communities—helping newcomers navigate life in Istanbul, translating at hospitals, or accompanying others to police stations when necessary.

Academic Reflections: From Fieldwork to Scholarship

This secondment has profoundly influenced the way I approach research. In the classroom and academic literature, migration is often analyzed in terms of policy frameworks, international conventions, and legal mechanisms. But in Istanbul, I saw how those frameworks come alive—or fail to—in people’s everyday lives.

The insights I gathered during my secondment will form the basis of an upcoming paper tentatively titled:

“Gendered Vulnerabilities and Resilience: The Case of Uzbek Female Migrants in Istanbul.”

In this paper, I aim to examine:

• How non-Western migration regimes, such as Türkiye’s, shape the experiences of Central Asian women migrants;
• How gendered labor markets and informal employment structures perpetuate inequality; and
• The strategies of agency and resistance that migrant women employ in the face of structural barriers.

My goal is to contribute to both academic debates and policy conversations on migration, labor, and women’s rights in the Global South.

Beyond Research: Personal Growth and Responsibility

Living and working in Istanbul taught me that being a researcher is not just about collecting data—it’s about bearing witness. It requires empathy, ethical responsibility, and humility.

At times, I struggled emotionally after hearing stories of exploitation and injustice. But I also learned that research can be an act of care—by amplifying voices that are often silenced, we contribute to change, even in small ways.

This experience reinforced my conviction that law and human rights education must be grounded in real-world experiences. As I return to the Tashkent State University of Law, I plan to integrate these insights into my teaching—encouraging students to think critically about how migration policies impact human lives and how legal systems can be more responsive to the needs of women migrants.

Looking Forward: Building Bridges Between Research and Practice

My collaboration with the Ozbek Kadin Haklari Dernegi continues even after the end of my secondment. We are discussing joint initiatives on awareness-raising and legal literacy for Uzbek women in Türkiye, as well as potential academic exchanges between Turkish and Uzbek institutions.

Ultimately, my experience in Istanbul reaffirmed the importance of cross-border solidarity—between scholars, activists, and communities. Migration is not just a social or legal issue; it is a human story that connects us all.

As part of the MARS project, I am proud to contribute to a growing body of research that challenges Western-centric perspectives and highlights the diversity of migration regimes and migrant experiences across the globe.

Closing Reflection

When I think back on my time in Istanbul, I remember the faces and voices of the women I met—their laughter, tears, and determination. Their courage to dream and to rebuild lives in the face of hardship continues to inspire me.

My secondment in Türkiye was more than a professional milestone; it was a journey of learning, empathy, and transformation. It reminded me that law, at its best, is not an abstract system—it is a promise of dignity and justice for every individual, regardless of their origin or status.

December 16, 2025

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By Vokhid Rakhimov, Kurultai Research and Consulting (Tashkent)

When I arrived in Istanbul for my research secondment at the Özbek Kadın Hakları Derneği (Uzbek Society for the Protection of Uzbek Women), the city immediately struck me as a place where worlds meet. The lively streets of Fatih and Aksaray, where Central Asian accents mingle with Turkish, Arabic, and Russian, revealed Istanbul as a unique site of cultural layering — both a destination and a transit hub for countless migrants from our region.

This research stay, undertaken within the framework of the EU-funded MARS project, allowed me to explore a theme that is becoming increasingly central in migration studies: the educational mobility of Central Asian students to Turkey. Turkey’s linguistic and cultural proximity to Central Asia, combined with its growing higher-education sector and scholarship programmes, has made it a magnet for young people seeking opportunities abroad. Yet, as I learned through both literature and fieldwork, the path of education migration is rarely straightforward. It involves adaptation, negotiation, and continuous learning — academically, socially, and personally.

Turkey is among the leading countries in the world hosting a large number of international students. According to the Turkish migration authorities, more than 180,000 foreigners held student residence permits in Turkey at the beginning of 2025. As shown in Figure 1, Turkmenistan (42,432), Uzbekistan (8,904), and Kazakhstan (7,202) were among the top ten countries with the highest numbers of students enrolled in Turkish public and private universities.

Figure 1. Top ten countries with students in Turkey in 2025. Source: https://en.goc.gov.tr/residence-permits

Fieldwork among Central Asian Students

During my stay, I met with Uzbek, Kyrgyz, and Kazakh students studying at universities in various universities across Istanbul. Their stories reflected both optimism and complexity. For many, Turkey represented a “familiar foreign land” — culturally close, yet institutionally and linguistically distinct.

One of the most recurrent issues was language. Despite linguistic kinship between Turkish and Uzbek, academic Turkish proved demanding. As many of my contacts highlighted, insufficient mastery of Turkish affects students’ reading comprehension, writing, and ability to participate confidently in class discussions

In particular, one student from Uzbekistan recalled: “In my first semester, I could sense the professors’ tone but not their meaning.” Over time, these linguistic challenges evolved into sources of resilience — shaping students’ ability to bridge cultures through language.

Financial and social adaptation also emerged as key themes. During my encounters I was able to see that many international students in Turkey face financial constraints, homesickness, and limited engagement with local peers. Scholarship schemes such as Türkiye Bursları are deeply appreciated, yet living costs in Istanbul stretch budgets thin. Many students engage in part-time work to sustain themselves. Still, students valued the experience: “We are not just studying here; we are building bridges between our countries,” one Kyrgyz student said.

Gender and Educational Mobility

My secondment was hosted by an organisation working primarily with migrant women. This environment gave me a unique vantage point to observe the gendered dimensions of educational migration. I encountered young Uzbek, Turkmen and Kyrgyz women balancing their academic ambitions with social expectations and family responsibilities. The Özbek Kadın Hakları Derneği offers crucial support — from language tutoring and counselling to informal peer networks that help women navigate both bureaucratic systems and personal challenges.

Gender, as I learned, is not only a demographic variable but a structuring force shaping how education mobility is experienced. For many Central Asian women, studying in Turkey represents both an academic opportunity and a subtle form of empowerment. As one student put it, “Here I learn not only my subject, but how to speak for myself.”

Education Migration in a Global Context

This fieldwork resonates with broader discussions about migration and higher education found in other works. Scholars argue that higher education functions as a tool for social inclusion — enabling migrants and refugees to rebuild lives, identities, and professional futures.

Turkey’s case illustrates this duality vividly. It is simultaneously a country of refuge, a site of South-South educational mobility, and an arena of state soft power. Central Asian students navigate these overlapping regimes of opportunity and constraint, forming a distinct category of transnational learners who straddle multiple educational and cultural systems.

Reflections from the Secondment

Personally, the Istanbul secondment was an intellectually and emotionally enriching experience. Working closely with the Özbek Kadın Hakları Derneği allowed me to see how grassroots initiatives complement formal migration governance. In community meetings and workshops, I observed how migrants share knowledge — how to register for classes, apply for residence permits, or even negotiate with landlords. This reminded me that migration systems are sustained as much by informal solidarities as by official policies.

The MARS project’s emphasis on non-Western migration regimes resonates deeply with these realities. Turkey, situated between the post-Soviet and European spaces, embodies a hybrid model of migration governance — one that is both developmental and humanitarian, yet also shaped by its regional politics.

Looking Ahead

As I return to Tashkent, I carry not only empirical data but new insights and questions. How does education migration reconfigure identities and aspirations in the Turkic world? What informal networks sustain student mobility beyond state policy frameworks? And how can research collaborations between civil society and academia better support these mobile young populations?

Istanbul, with its layered histories and migrant dynamism, offered me both a research site and a mirror. It reminded me that studying migration is not only about policy or numbers — it is about people learning to belong in motion.

December 12, 2025

chekhroskilichova

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by Sakhodulla Shomirzaev, Law Enforcement Academy of Uzbekistan

As an employee of the Law Enforcement Academy of the Republic of Uzbekistan, I had the unique opportunity to take part in a one-month internship at Lund University in Sweden during April–May 2025. Throughout this program, I explored the lives and experiences of Northern European countries within the framework of my own research, drawing comparisons with the current situation in my homeland.

One of the most striking aspects of the internship was the richness of the university’s libraries. I was genuinely impressed by the abundance of electronic resources and the seamless connection Lund University has with the libraries of other renowned European institutions. In particular, the Department of Sociology of Law and the Faculty of Law libraries played a crucial role in supporting our academic work.

Beyond the university, the city libraries of Lund and Malmö stood out as shining examples of accessibility and modern infrastructure. These public spaces were not only well-stocked with diverse literature but also offered excellent conditions for study and reflection. Truly, they are something to be admired.

At the same time, I had a strong desire to continue developing my research and further improve my English skills. With this goal in mind, I was planning to purchase some books for personal study. To my delight, I discovered a wonderful tradition both at the Sociology of Law Department library and in a nearby bookstore: a special section where discounted books were made available for students and researchers. This thoughtful initiative turned out to be exactly what I needed — a perfect opportunity to expand my personal library without straining my budget.

Right at the beginning of the internship, my colleague and I had the pleasure of attending a truly inspiring event organized by the department — a beautiful gathering that brought together current students and successful alumni who had graduated in this very field. Hearing their stories and learning about their career paths after university was not only beneficial for the students but also deeply motivating for us as visiting researchers. Events like these create an atmosphere of aspiration and encouragement that lingers long after they end.

We also had the opportunity to attend a scholarly seminar led by a doctoral candidate (Heraclitos Muhire) conducting research at the department. The topic of the research itself immediately caught our interest, but what made the event truly remarkable was the lively and thoughtful discussion that followed. The comments, suggestions, and constructive feedback offered by professors and faculty members to the researcher not only deepened our understanding of the subject but also sparked even greater curiosity and academic enthusiasm in us.

In the third week of the internship, we had the opportunity to take part in an academic conference — an experience that proved both meaningful and rewarding. I myself delivered a presentation titled “Combating and Preventing Corruption: International Practice and National Legislation”, based on insights gathered during the previous fifteen days of research, observation, and direct engagement with Northern European — particularly Swedish — society. The conference not only allowed me to share my findings but also became a valuable platform for professional exchange. As a result, I gained important knowledge and insights in three key areas: anti-corruption efforts, migration policy, and the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities.

In addition, I believe the internship proved highly beneficial for me — both academically and practically — thanks to the wealth of resources available in the libraries, the guidance of project supervisors, the support of faculty members, and the diverse perspectives shared by fellow interns from different countries. Equally enriching were the everyday interactions with members of Swedish society, which provided firsthand insights into their way of life. As one of the outcomes of my research, I prepared and presented a scholarly article titled “Interrogation of Individuals Suspected of Committing Corruption Offenses”, further solidifying the academic value of this internship.

I cannot conclude without mentioning Sweden’s clean air and highly efficient public transport system. These are true assets not only for local students but also for international researchers and interns. Breathing fresh, oxygen-rich air provides just the right atmosphere for creative and focused academic work. The ability to travel to and from the university quickly and reliably also leaves room for planning other tasks outside of study hours. In conclusion, I firmly believe that Sweden — and Lund University in particular — offers an ideal environment for conducting research in every possible sense.

October 16, 2025

chekhroskilichova

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