Paper abstract:

Plenty has been written on Turkey as a destination for refugees from Syria and elsewhere, and plenty more has been written about the migrant experiences of Central Asians and Eastern Europeans in Russia. Understandably, the comparatively small-scale presence of Central Asians and Eastern Europeans, including Moldovans, in Turkey has attracted less scholarship. Nonetheless, Turkey has emerged in recent years as an attractive migration destination for both Central Asians, including Kyrgyzstanis, and Moldovans. This migration in turn is bounded by gender, as most Kyrgyz and Moldovan migrants in Turkey are women working in the domestic sector. In this paper, I analyze and compare the experiences of Moldovan and Kyrgyz online communities in Turkey, utilizing Facebook and Telegram groups to examine priorities, challenges, and collaboration within these communities. I also present these findings in the context of factors such as gender and ethnicity. I propose that gender and ethnicity both play a role in defining the nature of these online communities, revealing differences in the way that each group interfaces with Turkish society. Despite this, the overarching purpose of these online communities is the same—to replicate the connection of an in-person community amongst isolated individuals living in a foreign country.