An abstract of the thesis of Bayram Sen for the degree of Master of Arts degree from the Atatürk Institute for Modern Turkish History to be taken September 2007

Nationalism and Migration: The post-1950 Balkan Immigrants from Yugoslavia

This thesis examines the relationship between nationalism, emigration and identity in Turkey in the post-1950 era. It studies the ways in which the immigrants define their nationality, legitimize their emigration to Turkey. For this reason, it first gives historical background from the secondary resources and memoirs about the immigration from Balkans to Turkey before the 1950s.This thesis is mainly based on oral history that includes twenty interviewees’ daily experiences and narratives both in Yugoslavia and then in Turkey. It studies the changing nationalities of Balkan immigrants through the effect of Muslim and Turkish identity. In this manner,immigrants tend to base their nationality dating back to the Ottoman Empire times.
Moreover, this study aims to illustrate that although nationalism can be created, it has been materialized by political, historical, economical reasons. For this reason, this thesis claims that it is not an imaginary entity. As a result, this thesis examines at first the difficulties of being an immigrant through analyzing the post 1950 Yugoslavian immigrants’ experiences. At second, it studies the relations between Balkan identities with Turkish nationalism. It considers Balkan identities under the
concept of being from Turkey. In the same manner, this thesis contributes to the literature through giving the example of Balkan people within the framework of the immigration to Turkey and the constitution of national identity in Turkey.

Atatürk Ilkeleri ve Inkilap Tarihi Enstitüsü’nde Yüksek Lisans derecesi için Bayram Sen tarafindan Eylül 2007’de teslim edilen tezin kisa özeti

Milliyetçilik ve Göç: 1950 Sonrasi Yugoslavya’dan Türkiye’ye Göç

Bu tez, 1950 sonrasi Türkiye’de milliyetçilik, göç ve kimlik arasindaki iliskiyi incelemektedir. Göçmenlerin kendi milliliklerini nasil tanimladiklari ve Türkiye’ye göç etmelerini mesrulastirdiklari yollari çalismaktadir. Bu nedenle, 1950 öncesi Balkanlar’dan Türkiye’ye göç ile ilgili ikincil kaynaklardan ve hatiratlardan, tarihsel bir altyapi vermektedir. Bu tez, esas olarak yirmi göçmenin Yugoslavya’da ve Türkiye’deki gündelik deneyimlerini ve hikayelerini içeren bir sözlü tarih çalismasina dayanmaktadir. Müslüman ve Türk kimlikleri etkisiyle Balkan göçmenlerinin degisen milliliklerini çalismaktadir. Bu anlamda, göçmenler kendi milliliklerini Osmanli