Reluctant border agents: enlistment of transportation workers in procedures to limit refugee mobilities in Turkey

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the enlistment of transportation workers in the procedures of bordering internal mobilities of refugees in Turkey. Drawing primarily on conceptual debates regarding bordering, the role of citizens in enacting the state, and (non)citizenship, it explores the ways in which transportation workers, as well as refugees, in their daily lives navigate the ever-expanding borders in the control-oriented Turkish asylum context. It argues that delegation of state power to citizens opens a space for noncitizens to exercise their right to mobility despite their lack of legal entitlement. On the other hand, such delegation removes the interactions from procedural safeguards and potentially harms refugees’ right claims. As a consequence, realization of refugees’ mobility claims depends significantly on how transportation workers understand and negotiate their assigned role as internal border agents within the ambivalent political and legal context of Turkey.