International Forced Migration and Employment Relations: The Case of Syrians in Turkey

Abstract

Due to the political unrest following the civil war in 2011, several million Syrians had to flee from their own country to save their lives. This form of migration is called as forced migration given rise to reasons such as environmental disasters, climate change, civil conflict, and war. The mass migration movement of Syrians, first within the country and then towards neighboring countries, brought along many socio-economic problems. One of the most affected countries has been forced migration from Turkey to the Syrian hosts, including about 5 million registered and unregistered. Although it has been 9 years since the process, which was initially established through temporariness, a solution could not be found and the dream of returning Syrians has weakened day by day. This study aims to reveal how the Syrians, who are included in the labor market in an unplanned way, affect the Turkish labor market. Dynamic Panel data analysis was carried out using the data of 26 regions of Turkey. As a result, a 1% increase in the immigrant rate, which represents the share of Syrian immigrants in the region’s population, increases the employment rate by approximately 0.02%.