Demet Lüküslü is a professor in the Department of Sociology at Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Turkey. She received her PhD in sociology from Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, France, in 2005. She has expertise in qualitative research and is particularly interested in youth studies, social movements, and the sociology of everyday life and gender studies. She recently worked on the book project (with Janet Batsleer and Harriet Rowley) Young People, Radical Democracy and Community Development (Policy Press, 2022). She has published several book chapters and journal articles in the Journal of Youth Studies, Young, Youth & Society, New Perspectives on Turkey, and Turkish Studies. She has also published extensively in Turkish. She is the author of Türkiye’de “Gençlik Miti”: 1980 Sonrası Türkiye Gençliği (The “Myth of Youth” in Turkey: Post-1980 Youth in Turkey) (İletişim Yayınları, 2009) and Türkiye’nin 68’i: Bir Kuşağın Sosyolojik Analizi (Turkey’s 68: The Sociological Analysis of a Generation). She is also the co-editor of the edited volume Gençlik Halleri: 2000’li Yıllar Türkiyesi’nde Genç Olmak (The States of Youth: To be Young in Turkey in the 2000s) (Efil Yayınları, 2013).

“High-Skillled Migration of the Younger Generation from Turkey to Germany: Exploring Belonging, Hope, and the Politics of Hope”

The body of literature on the migration of highly educated and qualified young people from Southern and Southeastern European countries to Central Europe is relatively large. However, the migratory flux of such individuals from Turkey is a newer topic in both policy debates and academic studies. The causes and effects of this new trend, in which educated young adults leave the country often to live in the Global North (especially Germany), are currently being discussed in Turkey, while the number of those leaving continues to rise. Although there is a rich literature on historical migration from Turkey to Germany, the new trend requires more attention. This project fills that gap and explores high-skilled migration through an in-depth qualitative study of young people hoping to leave Turkey and those who have begun living in Germany within the last decade to work in four main fields (academia, civil society, arts, and information and communication technology (ICT)). By considering the experiences and future expectations of the younger generation in Turkey, this project will report not only on high-skilled migration but also how it shapes understandings of belonging to a country, to a city, future expectations, hope about their individual lives as well as their hopes for the future of their home and host countries.