Do Diaspora Members Represent the Diaspora in the Turkish Parliament? A Contingent “Yes”

Turkey has nearly 5 million citizens (6,3% of the domestic population) residing abroad, yet the country lacks an overseas electoral constituency to date. Though expatriates do not have their directly elected representative in the Turkish Parliament, an increasing number of diaspora members with Turkish and Kurdish background in Europe are elected in general elections and become MPs in the Turkish Parliament. This study aims to answer the question of whom these MPs with a diaspora background represent by revisiting Mansbridge’s seminal work (1999) “Should Blacks Represent Blacks And Women Represent Women?” The data have been collected through an analysis of the legislative performance of the diaspora MPs who served during the last five legislative terms (from 2002 to present) and interviews with a representative selection of incumbent and retired MPs with an immigrant background. Preliminary findings suggest that while MPs with a diaspora background are noticeably more sensitive towards diaspora-related issues in general (i.e. the social, economic and political problems faced by citizens in host countries as well as in their homeland), MPs with an ethnic minority background (Kurdish, Yazidi) have an agenda heavily emphasizing the political problems of their ethnic group, rather than the diaspora per se.