Abstract :
Shaken by the devastating effects of the Second World War, some Western European countries, especially Germany, have started a major move towards industrialization and development since the 1950s. However, these countries, which lost a significant part of their young population in the war, had to close the labor deficit with the human resources they brought from abroad. The current living conditions in Turkey is very difficult from the beginning of the 1960s, as workforce has gone from Turkey to these countries many of our people. The majority of our people who started workforce migration were low-educated, unqualified and rural people. The leading actors of the workforce emigration, which has commenced primarily with Germany and expanded to other European countries with economic reasons, is sometimes called “German Turks” , “the expats” at times. Our expatriates have made significant contributions to both the countries where they live and our country in many areas from the beginning of the migration to the present. While they covered the workforce deficit of the countries they migrated and played an important role in the development of these countries, they provided significant benefits to the economic development of our country, especially by providing high foreign exchange inflow. A part of our expats whose number were stated with thousands in the initial years of workforce emigration but exceeded millions in numbers in a short period of time has gone to Europe from Beysehir and its vicinity. A great majority of our expats, who imagined returning home after earning some money, has not return back and tried to fulfil their homeland longing by coming to the lands where were born for many years on their annual leaves from work. The expats, who works with low salaries in bad life conditions throughout the year, has become as individuals who have been waited not only by many shopkeepers and traders because of high spending power according to country conditions but also by close relatives and beloved ones especially in summer months during holiday season. The expats in thousands, who has gone from Beyşehir and its region, been living abroad, has made great contribution to the economy, social and cultural development of the city and the region and still providing that contribution. However, there has not been any research and studies about the number of expatriates from the region and the extent of their economic contribution to the region.In this study, the numerical determination of the expats from Beyşehir and its region abroad and their contribution to the regional economy were investigated.
