Introduction

This introductory chapter presents the research topic, research questions, case selection, data and methodology and a plan of the overall book. The research topic in the book is home states’ emigrant engagement policies, and the implications of policy changes on emigrants’ transnational political practices, as well as home state–emigrant society relations. This topic is analyzed by using the case of Turkey, whose policies for engaging emigrant populations underwent transformation in the early 2000s. The relations between the Turkish state and the emigrants are examined by comparing the Turkish migrants in France and the United States, as the migration and integration policies in the two countries, and the socio-economic backgrounds of the classical Turkish migrant communities in the two cases, differ significantly. However, despite these significant distinctions, the changes in the Turkish state’s approach have created areas of similarity – related to the implications on institutional/administrative change and the transformations in the interactions between state-society representatives.