Turks in Austria

Turks in Austria, also referred to as Turkish Austrians and Austrian Turks, (german: Türken in Österreich; tr, ) are people of Turkish ethnicity living in Austria. They form the largest ethnic minority group in the country; thus, the Turks are the second largest ethnic group in Austria after the ethnic Austrian people. The majority of Austrian Turks descend from the Republic of Turkey; however, there has also been significant Turkish migration from other post- Ottoman countries including ethnic Turkish communities which have come to Austria from the Balkans (especially from Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Romania), the island of Cyprus, and more recently Iraq and Syria.

History

Turkish migration from the Republic of Turkey

Turkish people were recruited to Austria as Gastarbeiter (guest workers) for the construction and export industries following an agreement with the Turkish government in 1964. From 1973 the policy of encouraging guest workers ended and restrictive immigration laws were introduced, first with the 1975 Aliens Employment Act, setting quotas on work permits, and then the 1992 Residence Act, which set quotas for residency permits without the right to work. A more restrictive system was put in place in 1997 and further limits imposed in 2006.

Since the 1970s Turks living and working in Austria have focused on family reunification and on seeking Austrian citizenship, for which they need to have lived in Austria for 10 years.

Turkish migration from the Balkans

Bulgaria

Initially, Turkish Bulgarians came to Austria after fleeing the height of the Bulgarisation policies in the late 1980s, known as the so-called "Revival Process", when the communist ruler Todor Zivkov introduced an assimilation campaign in which Turks were forced to change their Turkish names for Bulgarian names, followed by the banning of the Turkish language and ethnic cleansing. Approximately 1,000 Turkish Bulgarians took refuge in Austria where they have since stayed permanently.

The social network of the first wave of political emigration of Turkish Bulgarians became the basis of labour migration to Western Europe after the collapse of the totalitarian regime in Bulgaria in late 1989. Thus, the preservation of kinship has opened an opportunity for many Turkish Bulgarian to continue to migrate to Western Europe, especially to Austria, Germany and Sweden.

More recently, once Bulgaria became a member of the European Union during the 2007 enlargement, the number of Turkish Bulgarian migrants in Austria increased further due to their freedom of movement rights as EU citizens. Thus, Turkish Bulgarian emigration to Austria in the twenty-first century has been dictated by the economic situation and the stagnation of the labour market in Bulgaria.

In the 2010s, the Turkish-dominated Movement for Rights and Freedoms political party in Bulgaria has been mobalising hundreds of Turkish Bulgarians in Austria, Germany and Spain.

Greece

The first mass migration of the Turkish minority of Western Thrace (located in Greece) to Austria began in the 1960s and intensified further between 1970-2010 due to political and economic reasons. In general, these migrants intended to return to Greece after working for a number of years; however, the Greek government used Article 19 of the 1955 Greek Constitution to strip members of the Turkish minority living abroad of their Greek citizenship. According to Article 19 of the Greek Constitution:

A report published by the Human Rights Watch in 1990 confirmed that:

Consequently, many ethnic Turks were forced to remain in the Western European countries they had settled in, which, in turn, also established the permanent Turkish Western Thracian community in Austria.

More recently, the second mass migration wave of ethnic Turks from Greece has been significantly larger in numbers, although it occurred only within eight years, between 2010-18, due to the Greek government-debt crisis.

Kosovo

Initially, Turkish Kosovars came to Austria when Kosovo was still part of Yugoslavia. The ethnic Turkish minority joined other Yugoslav citizens (i.e. Albanians, Bosnians, Serbs etc.) in migrating as "guest workers" in the 1960s and 1970s and then later brought their family members to Austria too. More recently, Kosovo Turks have also arrived as refugees during the Kosovo war (1998-99). The Turkish Kosovar community in Austria have been active in lobbying for the opening of more Turkish schools in the Balkans.

North Macedonia

The Turkish Macedonians first began to arrive in Austria as "guest workers" in the 1960s and 1970s alongside other citizens from Yugoslavia. Since North Macedonia gained independence in 1991, ethnic Turks have continued to migrate to Austria. In 2021, Furkan Çako, who is a former Macedonian minister and member of the Security Council, urged Turkish Macedonians living in Austria to participate in North Macedonia's 2021 census.

Romania

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, there has been a significant decrease in the population of the Turkish Romanian minority group due to the admission of Romania into the European Union and the subsequent relaxation of the travelling and migration regulations. Hence, Turkish Romanians, especially from the Dobruja region, have joined other Romanian citizens (e.g. ethnic Romanians, Tatars

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