Türkiye is a nation situated on lands that have received immigration throughout human history. Anatolia, which is at a strategic point where two continents meet and the West meets the East, has been one of the main migration routes of human communities throughout history. Archaeological findings in Göbeklitepe, Harbetsuvantepe and Karahantepe, among the oldest discovered so far, show these lands being a refuge for human communities for at least 12,000 years.
Historical data show that long before the European continent formed a civilization, the first human communities settled in Anatolia and established the first civilizations. The first settled human communities came from far away and settled here, laid the foundations of the first civilizations here and brought civilization to all continents from this geography.
This interest in Anatolian geography continues today as well. It is a crystal-clear picture when we look at official statistics: While the number of people receiving work permits in Türkiye was only 32,000 in 2012, this increased to 123,000 in 2020, 168,000 in 2021 and 212,000 in 2022, according to the latest data. Not only Middle Easterners but also citizens of developed countries show a great desire to come and work in Türkiye.
This is also seen in the number of people coming to live and reside. While 179,000 received residence permits in Türkiye in 2005, this figure reached 1.35 million in 2022. The number has exceeded 1.1 million even in the first three months of 2024.
Türkiye also attracts foreigners for touristic purposes. In 2023, 57 million tourists visited Türkiye. This figure was 26 million in 2008. Not just for Antalya's sand and sun, but also health tourism, border trade tourism, business tourism and conference tourism are highly developed. Every year, nearly 3 million Bulgarians visit the border town of Edirne for shopping and sightseeing. More than 1.5 million Iranians visited the border city of Van in 2023. Moreover, nearly 2 million people come to Türkiye to receive health care services every year.
Housing purchase statistics show that a significant portion of these visitors are deciding to settle down and become homeowners. Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) data shows that more than 300,000 foreigners bought houses in Türkiye in the last decade. Just in 2022, 67,000 houses were sold to internationals.
All these numbers tell us that, Türkiye, which hosts the world's biggest airports, is a country that is highly integrated with the world, not just in words but truly in soul. People come to Türkiye to travel, live, study and work, and they bring their resources with them. Türkiye's geostrategic position as well as the soft power policy implemented by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have a great impact on this impressive picture.
The most productive area of foreign interest undoubtedly lies in work permits. The International Labor Law No. 6735, enacted in 2016, marked a significant turning point, resulting in a notable increase in the issuance of work permits thus far.
Work permit requests are subject to evaluation criteria for both applicant workplaces and foreigners. However, insufficient knowledge of these criteria by employers and foreigners alike has led to the rejection of hundreds of thousands of applications annually by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security. The most important criteria for foreign work permits are:
Key criteria for foreign work permits include requirements such as employing Turkish citizens, capital shares for foreign partners and specific considerations for businesses offering certain services.
First, it is mandatory to have a minimum of five Turkish citizens employed in the workplace when applying for a work permit. If the foreigner requesting the permit is a company partner, the requirement of employing five individuals must be fulfilled during the last six months of the one-year work permit. Subsequently, for each additional foreigner seeking a permit, five Turkish nationals must be employed separately.
The workplace must have a paid-in capital of at least TL 100.000 ($3,089), or its gross sales must amount to at least TL 800,000 or the previous year's export value must be at least $250.000. However, this requirement does not apply to foreigners seeking employment in associations and foundations.
The criteria outlined above do not apply to the assessment of work permit applications for foreigners intending to work in Turkish representative offices of foreign state airlines, within the education sector, and in domestic services.
The foreign partner of a company established in Türkiye who requests a permit must have a capital share of at least 20%, not less than TL 40,000.
Work permit applications of businesses that provide the following services within their scope of business are evaluated positively:
• At least three-star tourism establishments certified by the Culture and Tourism Ministry, certified holiday villages and thermal hotels with an operating permit obtained from official authorities, which prove that they have licensed massage parlors.
• Facilities such as Turkish bath-sauna-SPA etc. that have an agreement (contract) with certified tourism businesses that host the complex.
• Sports centers licensed by official authorities that employ at least 20 nationals.
• Jobs that require expertise and mastery, such as masseurs, masseuses and SPA therapists.
For foreigners who will be employed in jobs requiring expertise and mastery in the entertainment industry and tourism-animation organization companies, if at least 10 Turkish nationals are employed, the quota for five citizens will not be applied separately for each foreigner.
In cases stipulated in bilateral or multilateral agreements to which Türkiye is a party, and in the evaluation of work permit requests for foreigners to be employed by public institutions and organizations in the procurement of goods and services through contract or tender procedures, the first and second criteria above are not applied.
In jobs requiring advanced technology or in cases where there is no local expert with the same qualifications, the criteria determined above may not be applied.
For foreigners other than key personnel to be employed in enterprises that meet the conditions for Special Foreign Direct Investment, the first criterion is applied based on the number of Turkish citizens working in all workplaces of the enterprise nationwide.
Normally, a single-tariff national monthly minimum wage is applied to Türkiye. Accordingly, the monthly minimum wage nationwide is 20,000 Turkish lira (approx. $620) for 2024.
However, for foreigners, differentiated monthly minimum wages are applied at varying rates. The monthly wage to be paid to the foreigner must be at a level compatible with the foreigner's duties, profession and competence. The logic of this regulation is to protect the local workforce and prevent foreigners from being exploited by being paid very little. Accordingly, taking into account the wage to be paid to the foreigner must be at least as follows:
• Senior managers and pilots are required to receive a salary equivalent to 6.5 times the minimum wage, approximately $4,000.
• Unit or branch managers, engineers and architects must be paid four times the minimum wage (approx. $2,400).
• Those who work in jobs requiring expertise and mastery, and teachers should be paid three times the minimum wage (approx. $1,800).
• Foreigners who will work as acrobats and similar titles in tourism-animation organization companies, and foreigners who will work as masseurs, masseuses and SPA therapists must be paid twice the minimum wage (approx. $ 1,200).
• Foreigners who will work in other professions must be paid 1.5 times the minimum wage.
• Foreigners who will be employed in domestic services can be paid the minimum wage.
There are also foreigners who are not subject to the evaluation criteria for work permit applications. Foreigners whose mother, father or child is a Turkish citizen or foreigners who have been living in marriage with a Turkish citizen for at least three years are such. Also, foreigners who are citizens of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) or foreigners who have been granted a residence permit within the framework of the practices of Turkish and related communities can benefit from this easy work permit application. Additionally, foreigners who have been granted a residence permit for humanitarian considerations, as victims of human trafficking or with stateless status are also within this status.
It should be noted that these foreigners are still required to obtain a work permit in order to work. However, their work permit applications are finalized without being subject to work permit evaluation criteria, easily. It is mandatory for the foreigners in question to prove that they are within this scope with official documents.
We are in an age of migration. Every year, hundreds of millions of people migrate from one part of the world to the other to live, work, study and start a new life. It is necessary to face this global fact and stop using migration as a tool for political gain. It might be a valid political tool for bigoted European politicians, but being anti-immigrant in Anatolia, which has been a migration route throughout human history, is not only narrow-minded but also anachronistic.
It should be underlined that it is of great importance for Türkiye to manage this huge foreign interest. Türkiye needs to abandon sterile political debates and focus on managing migration. It is not possible to stop migration, but it is possible to direct it and use it for the benefit of the country. If migration is not managed well, it will be a social problem; if it is managed, it will be a development tool.
Applications such as the Turquoise Card need to be strengthened. It is a great deficiency that the Turquoise Card, which is designed like the American Green Card, has been given to only eight people since 2016. Thousands of people each month should be granted Turquoise Cards. The Turquoise Card is a great tool to attract world-renowned scientists, athletes, artists, investors and great minds.
More importantly, Türkiye should establish a Ministry of Migration immediately. Macro policy programs are required to be established on migration that aims to achieve reverse brain drain. Türkiye should take advantage of this huge interest, attract the world's best and brightest, and make qualified migration the engine of its economic development. If these administrative measures are taken, Türkiye can be a heaven for qualified migrants and would definitely earn greatly from this.
