ABSTRACT

This article examines how three generations of women in an Afghan–Turkmen family residing in Istanbul, Turkey, have experienced historical migration and legal integration. We deploy the concept of potentiality to convey these women’s experiences of legal integration as a particular form of existence that is, at times, expressed by them and other families of Afghan background with the Dari metaphor of being ‘birds without legs’. The metaphor conveys their constant mobility. Combining original ethnographic data with the analysis of historical works, we argue that families of Turkic ethnolinguistic backgrounds from Afghanistan residing in Turkey have been unable, and at times unwilling, to realize refuge, citizenship and settlement as the endpoint of their mobile trajectories.

摘要

本文审视居住在土耳其伊斯坦布尔的阿富汗-土库曼家庭中的三代女性如何经历历史移民和法律融合。我们运用潜力的概念来传达这些妇女的法律融合经历作为一种特殊的存在形式，有时，她们和其他阿富汗背景的家庭用达里语比喻“没有腿的鸟”来表达这种经历。这个比喻传达了他们不断的流动性。将原始民族志数据与历史著作分析相结合，我们认为居住在土耳其的来自阿富汗的突厥民族语言背景的家庭无法，有时也不愿意将避难、公民身份和定居作为其流动轨迹的终点。