Paper short abstract:

This presentation proposes to study the Law of Work Permits for Foreigners in Turkey that was passed in 2003 as an example to the legal production of illegality.

Paper long abstract:

An unintended consequence of the demise of the Soviet system has been Turkey's transformation into a migration receiving country. Since the 1990's, many people from the formerly Soviet system, initially from Europe and later from the Caucuses, have been migrating to Turkey in order to seek employment in low paying jobs. With an increasing number of migrants willing to work in Turkey, and a state tradition that possesses an embedded xenophobia, and with its own agenda subscribed to a neoliberal set of priorities, the current Turkish government passed a work permit law in 2003 for the first time in order to regulate the foreign workers in the country. However looking at its formulation and its proposed applications, the law is more of an example to a legal production of illegality. Following the works of T.Asad and N. De Genova, this presentation proposes to study the process around the mentioned law.