Migratory Movements As a Multifaceted Process Under the Impacts of Climate Crisis: The Case of Central Anatolian Agricultural Basin, Cihanbeyli/Konya/Turkey

This study aims to examine the actual and potential role of the current climate crisis on human mobility and immobility in the context of migratory movements. Another aim of the study is to understand how this role is manifested in agricultural inequalities and injustices in rural areas where income equilibrium has been disrupted. Since 1980, the general trend in Turkey's rural areas shows that young peasants have been leaving agricultural production and agrarian life by heading towards district and urban centers. Between 2010 and 2020, one-fifth of the rural population engaged in agriculture followed a similar path. In this context, the research focuses on the Cihanbeyli district in the Central Anatolian Agricultural Basin in the Konya province of Turkey. The main question of the research is as follows: How do socio-economic injustices and inequalities emerging under the impact of neoliberal policies and the climate crisis affect migratory movements in the Central Anatolian Agricultural Basin in Konya, Turkey? To be able to give answers to this question, the research focus was directed to Cihanbeyli district and the villages of Böğrüdelik, Gölyazı, Günyazı, Kuşça, Taşpınar and Yeniceoba. While in-depth interviews were conducted with local people and families in six villages and the district center, expert opinions from different institutions were also included in the research. Methodologically, the study also benefits from an extensive literature review. The results of the research show that the background of the migratory movements from Cihanbeyli district and villages in the Central Anatolian Agricultural Basin, which have been continuing since the end of the 60s, has become more layered and complex within the framework of climate change and neoliberal policies that have increased their impacts since 2000. Along with this layered and complex background, a significant acceleration and intensification in migratory movements in the region is identified.