Existing research on international migration has focused on the importance of social networks and social capital in the countries of origin and destination. However, much less is known about the importance of social networks and associated social capital in transit countries. Drawing on ethnographic research on Iranian transit migrants in Turkey, this paper argues that migrant networks and social capital are equally important in transit countries. These networks, however, do not always generate positive social capital for Iranian migrants as there are scarce resources and there is no "enforceable trust" Iranian migrant networks reorganized in a transit country like Turkey are not static structures and they are largely affected by macro-variables such as current immigration and asylum policies of Turkey and Europe, transnationalism and globalization, and other place-specific features like Turkey's location bridging East and West, the existence of human smuggling networks, and its proximity to Iran. But Iranian migrant networks in Turkey are also affected by micro-variables, such as gender, religion, and ethnicity of individual migrants. © 2009 The Author. Journal Compilation © 2009 IOM.

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international migration Turkey immigration policy social problem social network social capital globalization asylum seeker