Socioeconomic Conflict between Host Community and Syrian Refugees in Urban Turkey: The Mediating Role of Political Trust

Abstract

This study investigated socioeconomic conflict between the host community and Syrian refugees in urban Turkey. It was aimed to explore the mediating role of political trust in the relationship between personal economic satisfaction and socioeconomic threat perception toward refugees among the host community. Accordingly, 243 local urban residents from different cities of Turkey including Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir were reached using a cross-sectional survey approach and convenience sample method. Regarding the Turkish political, social and economic culture and previous studies, assessment tools were generated for the purpose of this study to measure socioeconomic threat perception, personal economic satisfaction, political trust, and satisfaction with public policies. The participants’ age, city, education, gender and income information were obtained using a demographic form. Data was collected via an online survey program. Controlling for demographic variables (age, city, education, gender, and income) and satisfaction with public services, the indirect effect of political trust was analyzed using a bootstrapping method via PROCESS Macro plug-in for SPSS. The research findings showed that personal economic satisfaction was significantly associated with political trust and socioeconomic threat perception. Moreover, political trust was also significantly related to socioeconomic threat perception. More importantly, in accordance with the main hypothesis of the study, it was found that political trust mediated the relationship between personal economic satisfaction and socioeconomic threat perception. According to this result, it can be said that less satisfaction with personal economic conditions led to less political trust, which then resulted in greater socioeconomic threat perception toward refugees. The results were discussed in the light of previous findings, Integrated Threat Theory, Realistic Group Threat Theory, and System Justification Theory. Lastly, limitations and suggestions for future research were evaluated in the discussion part of the study.