Twenty-second International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

This paper aims to show how Turkish writer Nazlı Koca’s novel (2023) challenges the fixed categories of displacement, underlining instead migration as a non-linear process marked by the systemic barriers and the power dynamics involved in the mobility of people across borders. Unlike many contemporary migration novels, The Applicant demonstrates the inadequacies of the labels and terminologies –“refugee,” “migrant,” high-skilled,” and “low-skilled,” etc. that have come to define the discourse on migration in the 21st century. By offering a close reading of some of the key passages from this timely text, I anchor my analysis in migration theory and demonstrate how the novel works to uncover multiple layers of social and political structures that shape migration experience through its protagonist, Leyla’s experiences and reflections as a Turkish writer in her twenties who is stuck in bureaucratic limbo waiting for an extension on her student visa in Berlin.