The past few years have seen large numbers of people leaving Turkey. According to the annual International Migration Statistics published by the Turkish Statistical Institute, emigration from Turkey has increased by 63.4 per cent compared to the previous year and reached 113 thousand 326. Among those leaving are well-educated, qualified young people, academics and journalists, dissidents belonging to the middle- and upper-middle-class, as well as ethnic and religious minorities, for many of whom the post-coup developments have been the main trigger. Their individual reasons for emigrating varies, as do their chose of destination country. A few countries, however, have already made the headlines after receiving a greater influx of Turkish citizens. One of those is Greece. Owing to its geographical position and cultural proximity, nearly a century after the 1923 Population exchange and the intermittent migration waves of Turkeys’ Rum Orthodox population, Greece has yet again become destination to migration from Turkey.
This paper explores the new wave of Turkish migration to Greece with a particular focus on the immigration investment programme (the so-called Golden Visa) created by the Greek state in order to attract foreign investment and overcome economic crisis, and the increasing interest from affluent Turkish nationals.
Based on interviews with real estate agencies and investment consultancies in Greece and Turkey, transnational real estate brokers circulating between the two countries, upper-middle class Turkish citizens investing in real estate in Greece, among them some who have already relocated to Greece and others being frequent travelers between the two countries, interactions with potential investors, as well as individuals of the long-established Turkish communities of Athens’ Palaio Faliro and Nea Smyrni neighborhoods, this paper discusses the link between middlemen and Turkish Golden Visa holders. It discusses how the Greek Golden Visa programme has created a migration channel for middle- and upper-middle-class Turkish citizens, and argues that the founding of a new legal framework has led to an increasing commercialization of international mobility and created a transnational space, as it has opened up opportunities for middlemen in both the sending and receiving state. Furthermore, it has created opportunities for Turkish nationals who migrated to Greece two, three decades ago and individuals of the long-established Turkey related communities to take their part in the current wave as influential actors and middlemen.