7 Billion | Immigration 015.tif

Kumkapi neighborhood. This neighborhood is primarily Armenians originally but now Iraqi's, Georgians, Armenians, Iranians Algerians, people from Eastern Turkey and Sudanese. This is the area nearby Laleli neighborhood (means Tulip) where Russians and E Europeans started selling by luggage tourism by exchanging furs and semi precious stones, toys, hardware for jeans and other items to sell back home...Turkey is primarily affected by internal migration. Istanbul was 2 million 30 years ago...
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Kumkapi neighborhood. This neighborhood is primarily Armenians originally but now Iraqi's, Georgians, Armenians, Iranians Algerians, people from Eastern Turkey and Sudanese. This is the area nearby Laleli neighborhood (means Tulip) where Russians and E Europeans started selling by luggage tourism by exchanging furs and semi precious stones, toys, hardware for jeans and other items to sell back home...Turkey is primarily affected by internal migration. Istanbul was 2 million 30 years ago and is now 12 million. People I photographed in Yayla (Agricultural) lifestyle 10 years ago are now all office workers in Istanbul. There just isn't a good way to make a living in the rural areas anymore. In 30 years Turkey has gone from being 70 percent rural to 70 percent urban. The average in the world is 51 percent urban..Turkey is also a spinning top for migration to Europe from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Sudan. Sudanese go first to Libya and then on to Turkey. Turkey is very late to the party to deal with immigration and one of the factors for EU membership is that they need to deal with this. They are still working off a 1951 law that limits immigration to ONLY wealthy west Europe countries. Meanwhile Africa receives more refugees than Europe. 250,000 foreigners seek a better life by moving THROUGH Turkey, but few want to stay. But if you are Muslim you tend to stay longer. According to the UNHCR lawyer here Muslims are not considered "good" refugees by many EU countries and the USA. Even though Turkey does not officially welcome anyone outside the geographic restriction of wester Europe, they are more humane to them once they sneek into the country. UNHCR helps them get hospital care and their children into schools... relief organizations treat them as the "guest" that has such a special place in the Islamic religion. According the the UNHCR lawyer the criminilization of immigration is the worst part of this whole scene.
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