Perceiving Migration in Emirda ğ : A Baudrillardian Perspective

By 1970s, Western societies have entered a new phase marked by a cultural, economic and political transformation. These transformations in the economic realm as decrease in the demand on human labor and flexibility in the mode of production also have serious implications on the social, cultural and political areas, particularly on the volume and the nature of migratory flows. Post-modern school of thought provides the basis for the most of the arguments on the fore mentioned economic restructuration and its implications on contemporary social phenomena. The macro level theories that explain the labor migration from East to West and from South to North in the Fordist era, fall short in elaborating the multi-faceted flows of different forms of migration. Desires for different life style and opportunities, the images of the receiving societies and how the actors perceive the destined lands, play important roles in individual choices for migration. These images and information of various forms and kind are conveyed through mass media and Internet, which shape the perceptions and identity formation of the prospective migrants. From this standpoint, the main aim of this paper is to analyze the role and the way that perceptions, aspirations and images play in actors’ decision making for migration. Within this context, by employing Baudrillard’s conceptual framework, it will be argued that, in the universe of simulations, migration and factors of migration become hyperrealities and images that have lost their realities. By referring to Baudrillard’s concepts of simulacrum and simulation, it is intended to explicate whether or not and how perceptions, desires, images constructed by individuals stimulate migration. Within this context, the impact of direct personal communications, the communication with symbols through material ownerships, and the impact of perceptions of material symbols on individuals will be analyzed. Furthermore, how these perceptions effect the decision making process for migration will be elaborated. For that purpose, an explorative research was conducted in Emirda ğ district and its surrounding villages. Emirda ğ used to be an important source of labor migration up until 1970s, understand the main motives of the individuals and how the receiving societies are being perceived and the images of the receiving lands are being constructed by the actors of migration in the town, a series of semi-structured in-depth interviews are conducted with 44 participants, 24 women and 20 men from Emirda ğ and its periphery.


Introduction
By the 1970s especially in the western societies, cultural, economic and social changehave entered a new phase. This process corresponds to the emergence of the postmodern thought which has an impact on most of contemporary debates. At present, the instrumental rationality, universality, grand theories, reality and universal moral understanding of modernity is replaced by locality, the refusal of grand theories, subjectivity, deconstruction (Derrida), power and discourse (Foucault), and language games (Lyotard) of postmodernity.
On the basis of collage, diversity, pluralism phenomenon the postmodern discourse was formed around the denial of all de facto propositions, language games, acceptance of plurality and diversity by scientists; application of linguistic transformation that opens the understanding o reality and truth to discussion, objecting to the hegemony of absolute truth (Kumar, 2010, Sarup, 2010, Rosenau, 2004. In this discourse what is important is no longer the question of truth but rather how truth is constructed. General moral understandings and principals have lost their legitimacy; now the sources of the moral principals are the living circumstances and the necessities of our current age.
The macro level theories that explain the dynamics of migration, have evaluated the roles of production, distribution, the state policies. However, today, it is strongly emphasised that the decisiveness of the interaction that cross passes the national boundaries has increased; the cultural corridors and migration patterns have created trans-national societies; the interpersonal solid ties are replaced by a more mobile and fluid ones, the metaphor of "fluidity" becomes more functional in understanding our contemporary world (Bilgin, 2007:

Simulacra, Simulation and Migration within Baudrillardia Framework
For elucidating the efficiency of the consumer society debates in explaining the current social order, it could be referred to Baudrillard and his conceptualization of signs and images.
Having the opinion that the consumer goods are the system of signs that differentiate the society, Baudrillard takes consumption as the consumption of signs rather than the use value (Sarup, 2010: 230, Baudrillard, 2015. Baudrillard evaluates the transition from modernity to post-modernity as a historical scheme such as early modernity, modernity and postmodernity (Sarup, 2010: 228, Baudrillard, 2015. Within this historicity, he writes about simulacra, which have no relation with anything except its own, self and mentions three phases of simulacra. (Baudrillard, 2014: 158-165;Baudrillard, 2008;Sarup, 2010: 228, Adanır, 2010, Aydoğan et. al., 2005, Öker, 2005. The first one is the Law of Natural Value that encompases the era between the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution. The form that designates this era is duplication. It is being stated that, the duplication of reality is remained at the art level such as painting, sculpture, theatre, (Baudrillard, 2008: x-xi).
The dominant form of the second phase of Industrialisation was production and the simulacrum of this stage was the Law of Commodity exchange value. In this phase production that was materialised by machinary were the simulacra, and the reproduction of the reality were shifted to movies, photography and the production of Industrial simulacra Accordingly, a system of signs as simulacras has come into being which are independent of materials. In parallel with this, social relations also are carried out through images, symbols and brands.
Baudrillard mentions in his book The Transparency of Evil that we have passed from the third stage to the fourth stage of fractal stage. The definition of fractal stage as the contemporary scheme of our culture in his own words (Baudrillard, 1995: 11-12): "For after the natural, commodity and structural stages of value comes the fractal stage. The first of these stages had a natural referent, and value developed on the basis of a natural use of the world. The second was founded on a general equivalence, and value developed by reference to logic of the commodity. The third is governed by code, and value develops here by reference to a set of models. At the fourth, the fractal (or viral, or radiant) stage of value, there is no point of reference at all, and value radiates in all directions, occupying all interstices, without reference to anything whatsoever, by virtue of pure contiguity. At the fractal stage there is no longer any equivalence, whether natural or general. Properly speaking there is now no law of value, merely a sort of epidemic value, a sort of general metastasis of value, a haphazard proliferation and dispersal of value. Indeed, we should really no longer speak of value at all, for this kind of propagation or chain reaction makes all valuation impossible. Once again we are put in mind of microphysics: it is as possible to make estimations between beautiful and ugly, true and false, or good and evil, as it is simultaneously to calculate a particle's speed and position. Good is no longer the opposite of evil, nothing can now be plotted on a graph or analysed in terms of abscissas and ordinates.
Just as each particle follows its own trajectory, each value or fragment of value shines for a moment in the hevans of simulation, and then disappears into the void along a crooked path that only rarely happens to intersect with other such paths. This is the pattern of fractal and hence the current pattern of our culture". (Baudrillard, 1995: 11-12; http://www.teoretisketirsdage.net/files/gimgs/Baudrillard%20-%20After%20the%20Orgy%20-%20Transaestetics.pdf) In defining the fractal stage Baudrillard uses the term After the Orgy. In this context Baudrillard declares that modernity and all the meaningful goals of the processes that are believed to emerge with modernity have been reached and at this stage of satisfaction the relations with reality have been disrupted (Baudrillard, 1995: 10): "If we were to characterize Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies Volume: 6 -Issue: 3 July -2016 the present state of affairs, I would describe it as 'after the orgy'. The orgy in question was the moment when modernity exploded upon us, the moment of liberation in every sphere.
POlitical liberation, sexual liberation, liberation of the forces of production, liberation of the forces of destruction, women's liberation, children's liberation, liberation of unconscious drives, liberation of art. The assumption of all models of representation, as of all models of anti representation. This was a total orgy. We have pursued every avenue in the production and effective overproduction of objects, signs, messages, ideologies and satisfactions. Now everything has been liberated, the chips are down, and we find ourselves faced collectively with the big question: What do we do now the orgy is over? Now all we can do is simulate the orgy, simulate liberation. We may pretend to carry on in the same direction, accelerating but in reality we are accelerating in a void because all the goals of liberation are behind us (Baudrillard, 1995: 10)." The above-mentioned state is a state of simulation; all scenarios real or virtual have occurred so nothing left to do except replaying the already occurred scenarios. The reason for continuous reproduction is that the signs and practices are liberated from their ideas, concepts, essence, values, referents, roots and goals. Idea has already disappeared but things continue to process. The liberation started with modernity while reaching its goal, everything that liberated beyond its envisaged level liberated to enter the sheer cycle (Baudrillard, 1995;Adanır, 2010, Aydoğan et. al., 2005, Öker, 2005. Even though all utopias are substantiated, oddly enough, there is nothing left to do but act as if they haven't been substantiated yet (Baudrillard, 1995). The idea of development has disappeared but development continues.
The idea of prosperity as the basis of production has disappeared but production continues. In the realm of politics idea has disappeared but game of politics with its own goals continues in a secret recklessness. Nothing disappears by coming to an end or dying; but disappears by rapid reproduction, extensionally, by way of satisfaction and transparancy; there is a diffusion in the form of fractal (Baudrillard, 1995, s.13).
Within this theoretical framework the constructed reality in the course of the migration process in general and the process of migration from Emirdağ to Europe in particular can be explained by, for example, Baudrillard's analogy of Disneyland. With the existence of all kinds of games and toys Disneyland entertain individuals in a fantastic universe, while this hides the fact that the world outside of Disneyland which is believed to be the real is  concept of simulacra. The images, which were firstly represented by materials than replaced the materials and finally became the materials themselves, are an object of prestige and identity representation in social relations. When taking the images that became materials within the contest of Emirdağ, a foreign plate attached to a luxury car may embody the idealized life style for youth in Emirdağ. From a Baudrillardian framework, the idealized Eurocentric life styles that enter into the homes through mass media, come into existance with the commodities as simulacra brought by Turkish people from European countries who visiting their hometown of Emirdağ. The symbols of desired lifestyles appeal to the Emirdağ youth while become means of prestige and status for the European Turks visiting Emirdağ.

Purpose
The purpose of the study as follows, • To analyze the role and the way that perceptions, aspirations and images play in actors' decision making for migration. • In the universe of simulations, migration and factors of migration become hyperrealities and images that have lost their realities.
• By referring to Baudrillard's concepts of simulacrum and simulation, it is intended to explicate (explikeyt) whether or not and how perceptions, desires, images constructed by individuals stimulate migration.
• Within this context, the impact of direct personal communications, the communication with symbols through material ownerships, and the impact of perceptions of material symbols on individuals is analyzed.

Research Design
The main purpose of this research is to understand the dynamics of migration process in Emirdağ a district of Afyon central Turkey with forty thousand populations while two hundred thousand of its former townspeople live in several European countries.

Study Group
Study group of the research is determined by criterion sample one of the type of purposive sample. In this contex, following criteria used to select the participants; people who are directly affected by migration process thorough their occupations, family ties and those who are studying in Emirdağ but strongly considering to migrate. The study group consists of 24 women and 20 men in total of 44 participants. The main criteria are that the participants are close witnesses or directly effected by the migration process, voluntary participation and confidentiality. Any information like names, communication and address information, detailed informations on occupation or any other information that would reveal their identities weren't obtained during data collection and analysis stages and participants guaranteed full anonymity. Fort his purpose codes were given to participants with the combination of the first letter of their names, their age and the first letter of their dwelling like center -C-or village -V-.

Means of Data Collection
Semi-structured interview form developped by the researchers, used to collect data. This form consisted of open ended, interpretative questions. The participants were reached by snowball method and interviewes were conducted in the center of Emirdağ and its villages.
Interviews took about 40 minutes and recorded and transcribed.

Data Analysis
Descriptive analysis is used to analyze the data. The findings expressed with quatations and interpreted in the light of the literature. At the first stage of descriptive analysis, a framework was determined for data analysis. The second stage the data were organized according to the framework and at the third stage the data were defined and lastly they were interpreted (Yıldırım and Şimşek, 2011).

Findings and Discussions
In this section, the findings of the research are analyzed with referans to Baudrillard's arguments on simulation universe. The results are analysed under these three topics: The future and carrier plans of the participants; dynamics of the migration process; the reality of migration to Europe vs. the imagined migration to Europe. In out contemporary world, every dimension of the social existence is in fact a complicated form of simulation, which is especially designed for the fragile reproduction of the political, economic and cultural (Luke, 1991, s.348). If migration taken into considiration within this context, it could be argued that migration is nourished with the dreams of reaching a land of prosperity, liberty and luxury and shaped by an imagined-European-lifestyle (Sahin Kütük, 2012;Marcus, 2009;Dominguez, 2014). However the previous researches reveak the fact that, the dreamed Europe and the actual social and working conditions the migrants find themselves in are completely the opposite (Şahin Kütük, 2012;Marcus, 2009;Dominguez, 2014). Hence the Simulation Theory of Baudrillard provides a unique basis for such an approach.
Each stage of simulation world has its own peculliar simulacra and values. Like all other social constructs, migration process is also shaped by these simlacra and values. In this Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies Volume: 6 -Issue: 3 July -2016 context, from Baudrillard's frame work we can say that in fractal stage the approaches and practices that shape the migration process have no any value, they do not take their roots from any real culture and does not have any certain equilibrium. Thus, as a result of these approaches the migration process creates strategies that contribute to the continuation of simulation order. It could be mentioned that some of the concepts and statements that Baudrillard used for defining the fractal stage may find its reflections on the current developments of the migration process. Some of the peculiarities of the fractal stage that is functional in the analysis of migration could be as follows (Yaylacı and Göktuna Yaylacı, 2015): • It is not possible to talk about the existence of value anymore; the law of value does not exist • After Orgy; the perpetual reproduction • Operational liveliness that hides the fact that everything have disappeared but act as if still exist • Spread of the simulacra by technological dissemination • Discourses without any basis • Plans and constructs for an order that doesn't exist

Future Plans of the Participants
In order to understand the future and carrier plans of the participants, their carrier plans, how they percieve their own socio-economic conditions and how can they Picture themselves in 10 years are questioned. When their answers to these questions are analyzed it became clear that the participants who have a limited opportunity of carrier and education and little prospects in terms of occupation are in the process of migration to Europe. Senior year high school students, university students and the participants who have a stable job have negative views towards migration. Five of the participants are secondary and higschool graduates with occupations like owning small size entrepreneurs, fifteen participants are senior year high school students who plan to continue threir university education. 11 participants finished their primary school education but didn't continue to high school or dropouts. They are either farmers in the rural areas or jobless. The same 11 participants whose spouses are third or fourth generation immigrants in Europe, indicate that they don't see any future in Turkey. To quote from the 18 years old female participant whose husband is from Netherlands: "I wanted to go the secondary school. It didn't happen because of my mother, father, brother." Another  (Marcus, 2009: 481). Marcus defines the concept of "geographical imagination" as "the abstract or concrete information about space that enables people to construct that space", and considers it as the most distinctive noneconomic component of factors of migration (Marcus, 2009: 481). At this point, the notion of " geographical imagination" could be functional in understanding the imagined Europe in the minds of youth in Emirdağ and the circumstances of Emirdağ at the opposite side. The US in the imaginations of Brazilians which is identified with the "life they see in the movies", adventure, liberty as in Marcus's (2009) study coincide with the imagined Europe in the minds of Emirdağ people. In his argument Marcus (2009: 487) quoting from one of the participants mention that the participant had a magical US in his childhood imagination. As will be seen in the following discussions, in the imaginations of the Emirdağ people, Europe is an enchanted land from a fairy tale, a heaven full of all opportunities. However, as mentioned before, from Baudrillardian perspective, just like the Disneyland analogy, it could be claimed that the constructed heaven functions as hiding the fact that the idealized Europe and migration does not actually exist and perpetuates Europe as a desired object.

Factors Effective in the Decision Making Process for the Participants
In the theoretical framework while discussing the postmodern discourse, it was mentioned that the main question is not what the reality is but how it is constructed. In parallel, in understanding how Europe is constructed in the minds of Emirdağ people, which reasons become important in their discourses is and how these reasons point to their imagined Europe are analysed. When the factors that are effective in their decision making for migration are Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies Volume: 6 -Issue: 3 July -2016 asked, in parallel to the answers to the previous question, the main factor turned out to be the lack of job and carrier opportunities in Emirdağ. In relation to this, the participants who decide to migrate emphasise that, the idea to obtain better economic conditions, better social services were the significant in their decision-making. Additionally, the participants indicated the luxury cars, consumption patterns and especially the stories told by the individuals who come to spend their holiday from Europe as effective.
The participants whose spouses are from European countries and they migrated to Europe with them mention that theirs was a love marriage they also admit that most of the young people in Emirdağ with no education and carrier opportunities migration seem to be the only alternative and with their families' support and encouragement they choose to get married to their fellow townspeople in Europe and migrate with them. For instance female participant at the age of 17 state that: "they come in the summers for vacation. They visit us, saying your daughter at the age of marriage. For example they come from abroad to our house and talk like that. This is annoying." At this point it is also important to state that in addition to the illusive European perceptions of Emirdağ people, the Europeans of Emirdağ origin also have the same illusive perception that the authentic Turkish culture still exists in Emirdağ and it could be preserved by marrying to Emirdağ people which is a subject of another study and also could be explained through Baudrillardian framework.
One of the young female participants from her experiences mentioned those who come from Europe to Emirdağ come to ask for young girls for marriage, which is highly common in summers: "They come very often to my family this summer for arranging marriage. I tell them politely that I will continue my education. wanted to see what they are like in Belgium." 64 year old male participant also indicates that: "They come here with beautiful cars it is easy to buy there. Here when kids start to talk they say 'I'll go to Europe'. It is just a desire for car nothing else." From these statements it is obvious that a serious decision like starting a new life abroad takes its roots from 'desire for car' and reaching a life represented by 'desire for car'. Just like the image that the mobile phone represents is consumed instead of the material phone itself, during the migration process not the car itself but the symbols and images that the car represents are desired to be consumed as mentioned.
Just like the 46 year old male participant indicates, the young people in Emirdağ grow up with the dreams of reaching to Europe which is told to them as if it is a Wonderland: "Before they migrate, they think that they will be migrating to a dreamland. After the plane lands, they get very much surprised". As understood from the participants' remarks, even though it is known by the young people in Emirdağ that the bright picture that the people coming for vacation does not represent the truth, with the eagerness to reach prosperity in an easy way they tend to believe the bright picture and try to find the ways to reach it which ends with disappointment. What is meant by disappointment is that even though the migrants come back with a lot of luxury back homes in Europe instead of living the idealize European life.
They continue to live their old small rural life. About what happens after reaching European countries, the statements of 61 years old male participant is highly striking: "I regret that he is is perceived differently in Emirdağ". As it is seen, however the delusion in the perceptions of individuals have a significant role in their decision making process for migration, awareness of the simulation universe manifest itself during the interviews.
The hard truths in contrast to the imagined constructs often took place in the responses of the participants. For instance, a female participant at the age of 18 who migrated to Belgium stated that: "I saw from my elder sisters, they didn't like it there. When they compared Turkey they said here it is better than Belgium." Another 29 years old male participant also mentioned that: "go tell a guy to live in Istanbul instead they would see Istanbul or any other city in Turkey as dark and gloomy. Tell him go to Europe he would see it as bright. He doesn't know language can't even ask for water there but still Europe is bright to them. They go to Europe buy a car with bank loans show their car here in Emirdağ and then go back to Europe to wake up at 4 in the morning for work. I'm 29 years old never got that early in my life." As can be seen from the responses of the participants, even if the picture of Europe drawn by the individuals spending their vacations in Emirdağ does not represent the reality, for the sake of reaching prosperity in an easy way and escape unemployment and economic constraints in Emirdağ people still believe to the imagined lands and try to reach for it. In parallel, Eastwood (1983) in his study on immigration in Venezuela discusses that, to what degree the beliefs that some regions promise better opportunities and the individual perceptions of better opportunities correspond with the realities is questionable and in many cases these beliefs are nothing but delusions (Eastwood, 1983: 452).

Participants
In order to better analyse how the migration process is perceived, the positive and negative aspects of migration to individuals and to both societies are asked. Among the positive Kütük's (2012) fieldwork on the conditions of immigrants of Turks who work at the ethnic small enterprises of Turkish origin in Frankfurt, it was mentioned that the new comer Turkish migrants who are employed in these enterprises cannot even take language courses because of the long working hours let alone continuing higher education. One of the most significant asked they respond with their own observations and experiences. From there it can be inferred that, when discussing the positive aspects the participants just the features of the simulation universe is repeated, namely the features of the imagined Europe. The hints of the paradox between the real and imagined Europe can be seen from the following responses to the negative and positive aspects of migration to Europe which is also the reflection of discrepancy in the minds of the participants created by this paradox. According to the 30 years old female participant quoting from her relative lives in France: "I came to these days but don't ask me how? I am at ease here for 15-20 days at most when I go back there I suffer.
How we look here in Emirdağ shouldn't mislead you." Another female participant at the age  (Marcus, 2009: 487).
In summary, from the experiences and responses of the participants it can be asserted that, especially the young people in Emirdağ construct an ideal Europe where they can reach all their desires, based on the tempting pictures drawn by their visitors from Europe. After migration to Europe in pursue of their dreams they face the solid truth that the bright and prosperous Europe that they dreamed of does not exist in reality. From this standpoint, the discourses on wealth and richness, the conspicuous consumption and luxury function in pretending that the fictitious order of the simulation universe, which does not refer to any truth and reality, still exists. Those individuals who still have some ties with reality, the simulation universe is meaningless, whereas those individuals who had to face the truth in one way or the other find themselves in a deep disillusionment. Trying to perceive the realities with surreal visions impacts individuals in a very powerful way.
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies Volume: 6 -Issue: 3 July -2016

Conclusion
In the article, with reference to Baudrillard's simulation theory, within the framework of the migration process to Europe, it was argued that the migration process and the European Ideal as the basis of this process as a simulation universe seem to continue as if it still exists. As mentioned in the theoretical discussions, Baudrillard refers to the concept of simulacra in explaining the cultural system, "as if"ness or appearance of reality. These appearances organize the social life. Simulacra, presents the principles of reality together with the categories of how society perceives itself. The simulacra organize institutional practices in order to maintain and reproduce the status quo (Palermo, 1992). Consequently, simulacra in the form of migration from Emirdağ, provides for the reproduction of the current order of migration.
At the beginning of the discussions, it was stressed out that, the within the Baudrillardian conceptual framework, the migration perceptions of Emirdağ people can be considered as reflections of simulacra. Symbolic consumption goods and the idealized European life style identified with those commodities make Europe an object of desire for Emirdağ people as the participants often mention the richness and vanity. In other words, luxury cars, gold and conspicuous consumption as simulacra, continues the current status quo of migration and reproduce it via certain tools like marriage. Within Baudrillardian framework, in his analogy, Disneyland actually hides the fact that the outside world is a simulation. This image of Europe as paradise hides the fact that the Ideal Europe and migration per se does not exist anymore. Migration in cultural sense has disappeared; the phenomenon of migration to a prosperous free society is replaced by a migration that is homogenous with the hometown of Emirdağ itself. As a result, the Ideal Europe that was depicted in the interviews can be considered as a simulation universe in Baudrillardian sense whereby individuals reach luxury, prosperity and comfort with little or no effort.
This study explains the decision making process for migration to Europe as we know, from the Baudrillardian perspective. How the individuals who are remained in the hometown of Emirdağ perceive migration and life in Europe and how their perceptions are shaped. For future research, how the life of newly arriving immigrants change, how the discrepancy between the imagined and real Europe affects the individuals can be investigated.
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies Volume: 6 -Issue: 3 July -2016