Turkey home to 650,000 foreign nationals, in addition to millions of refugees
by Daily Sabah with Agencies
ISTANBULFeb 06, 2016 - 12:00 am GMT+3
by Daily Sabah with Agencies
Feb 06, 2016 12:00 am
According to the latest figures of Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) based on the country's address based population registry system, more than 650,000 foreign nationals reside in Turkey, excluding the 2.5 million Syrian and Iraqi refugees who poured into the country due to the ongoing civil wars.
Turkstat data stated that 310,147 of foreign nationals were males and 340,161 were females. Iraqis, with a community of 93,697 people, ranked first among foreign nationals residing in Turkey, followed by Germans with 69,873 and Syrians with 56,647 residents.
With a share of over 30 percent, Turkey's largest city Istanbul has 199,260 foreign residents followed by the capital Ankara with 55,064 and the country's tourism capital Antalya with 54,755 residents, with respective 8.5 and 8.4 percent shares.
The data collected by Turkstat also revealed the latest situation on domestic migration figures of Turkey. A total of 2.72 million people switched addresses within the country, with 50 provinces indicating a net outflow of residents while 31 provinces received inflow.
With the highest share of public employees within its population who are assigned to other provinces periodically, Ankara had the most restless population figures of the country with 153,001 residents leaving the province and 204,048 moving in. Ankara received the highest resident intake with a net inflow of 51,047, followed by Istanbul with 50,543 and Kocaeli with 51,047.
The southeastern province of Diyarbakır, which has been struck by PKK terrorism since July 2015 along with other provinces in the region, had a net population outflow of 19,901 people. Despite their relatively lower population, Şırnak, Mardin, Siirt and Hakkari provinces, which also suffer from heavy armed clashes between PKK terrorists and Turkish security forces, had net immigration numbers of 12,061, 10,337, 5,661 and 4,767 residents, respectively.
However, economic reasons were also effective as much as security in migration. The eastern provinces of Erzurum, Van and Muş, which were relatively peaceful during the latest clashes, stood at the top of the migration outflow list, while many other provinces in Black Sea, Central Anatolia and Aegean regions also had migration outflow. An interesting fact was that the southern Adana, Mersin and Gaziantep provinces, which are more economically developed than the national average with solid industrial, agricultural, trade and tourism activities, also had migration outflows in 2015.
There are more residents living Istanbul with ties to eight provinces than residents actually living in these provinces, according to Turkstat figures. Istanbul, with a population of 14,657,434 people with roots all over the country, outranked Erzincan, Giresun, Kastamonu, Sinop, Sivas, Tunceli, Bayburt and Ardahan provinces in terms of residents registered from these provinces.
For instance, the population of northeastern Ardahan province was 99,265 in 2015 according to latest figures. However, Istanbul residents registered in Ardahan were 245,653, nearly 2.5 time more than the province itself.
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