Perception of Syrian refugees in Turkey: Case of Gaziantep City

Abstract

Due to the increasing of violence and war, the number of refugees in the world is rapidly increasing in recent years. Among countries, Turkey is the most affected one from this situation. The Syrian civil war has led a rapid refugee influx to major cities of Turkey’s border. As Syrian refugees, this case is closely related to the people live in Turkey. Refugees in Turkey are seen as a problem on their own and it is only focused on refugees for the solution. Due to sharing the same place, refugees and interaction of local people must be dealt with an entirely. As a matter of fact, refugees as well as local people have great responsibility in order to create a social cohesion and cultural environment. In this case, there should be various scientific studies on the local people and some policies should be improved at the same time in order to solve the problems which are related to refugees. This study aims a scientific contribution to this social issue and try to determine what the perception of citizens of the Republic of Turkey about Syrian refugees is. Case of Gaziantep, which mostly hosting refugees, is selected as the sample. In this context, by random questionnaires and interviews with citizens of the Republic of Turkey from the point of view of their differences of sex, age, job, district and income levels were conducted. Therefore, both of quantitative and qualitative research methods were utilized. Thus, the reliability of studying is enhanced a lot. In regard to the findings in this study, perceptions about refugees have been determined that differentiation due to differences in social, cultural, and economic levels in Gaziantep. Across the city, the rate of negative thoughts for the presence of refugees is around 45 %.