A total of 247,062 foreign nationals possessing residence permits left Turkey last year, according to a report in Turkish economy news outlet Ekonomim on Wednesday, which cited official data.
According to data from the Interior Ministry’s Directorate of Migration Management, the number of foreign nationals in Turkey, which was 1,354,094 in 2022, dropped to 1,107,032 in 2023.
The report said Turkey experienced its largest annual decline since 2005 in the number of foreigners leaving the country.
The previous highest decrease in the figure occurred in 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic broke out and 214,377 people with residence permits left Turkey.
The number of foreigners with residence permits in Turkey remained around an average of 200,000 until 2011, when it began to increase following the start of the Syrian civil war that year. The figure reached 460,000 in 2016, 593,000 in 2017, 856,000 in 2018 and 1,101,000 in 2019.
Among the foreigners leaving Turkey last year, 148,555 resided in İstanbul, 44,383 in Antalya and 14,248 in Ankara. In terms of nationality, citizens of Turkmenistan, the Russian Federation and Iraq ranked at the top.
According to Dr. Metin Çorabatır, president of the Research Centre on Asylum and Migration (İGAM), the primary cause of the record-breaking “reverse migration” in 2023 was the return of approximately 150,000 Ukrainian and Russian citizens to their countries or their departure to Western countries in the wake of the Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Associate Professor Nermin Aydemir, a faculty member at Antalya Bilim University, argued that Turkey lacks a planned migration and integration policy.
“Migration management trends are based more on cosmetic solutions than developing policies,” she said.
Meanwhile, Turkish citizens were the second largest group after Syrians seeking asylum in Germany in 2023, with 62,624 people lodging asylum applications last year, according to data from the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF).
Since a failed coup in 2016 that led to a widespread crackdown on dissent by the Turkish government, the number of Turkish nationals seeking asylum in Germany and other Western European countries has seen a significant increase.
An ongoing economic crisis in the country caused by skyrocketing inflation, which stands at close to 65 percent, and the constant depreciation of the Turkish lira is also prompting some Turks to seek ways to leave the country for a better life in Europe.