The article demonstrates the challenges of the project, which argues that the pro-immigration policy of the Ottoman/Turkish governments (1774–1989) was shaped by political concerns (concretely population and identity politics), in addition to humanitarian concerns. The pro-immigration policy, and more specifically the opendoor policy, facilitated, encouraged, compounded, and even in some cases produced immigration. In other words it functioned as a “pull factor”. As a working paper, this article will analyse epistemological, methodological and theoretical challenges that emanate from the scope of the topic. To examine two centuries of migration covering a territory extending to three continents and including millions of migrants, as well as those they were directly or indirectly tied to, is indeed quite a challenge.