Access to Social Protection by Immigrants, Emigrants and Resident Nationals in Turkey

Abstract

This chapter scrutinises the social protection system in contemporary Turkey in order to examine how different groups of individuals access social benefits across five main policy areas—unemployment, health care, family allowances, pensions, and guaranteed minimum resources. The general conditions under which Turkish citizens and foreigners have access to social benefits in Turkey can be summarized as follows: (i) residence and employment status are important determinants of one’s access to social protection in Turkey; (ii) employment status generally determines the access to unemployment benefits, health care, pensions, and family benefits, while residence status is important for all social policy areas except pensions; (iii) a majority of social benefits provided for Turkish citizens are also available for foreign residents through their employment status; (iv) guaranteed income is granted based on residence in Turkey; (v) access to family benefits may vary depending on one’s occupation, residence, and nationality. The Turkish system of social protection is a fragmented one, with divisions based on occupational differences, residence, income level, and citizenship. This fragmented nature coupled with regional and global socio-economic risks (particularly large migration flows) make structural social security reforms inevitable in contemporary Turkey.