Abstract
The war in Syria is five years old now. This long-lasting phenomenon has caused a historic case of mass forced migration. That is, millions of Syrians have been forced to displace and escape from the war in Syria to several transnational destinations. Hosting nearly three millions of Syrians, Turkey is a destination to which the highest number of Syrians have moved. To host her guests well, Turkey has been providing the Syrians in Turkey with several supports. Among the supports for the Syrian guests, there comes the access to higher education in Turkey. In this sense, the Turkish Government's several legislative regulations have enabled 5560 Syrians to study at universities in Turkey. Unlike conventional migration studies that just focus on migrants' adaptation to their new lives, this study examines the perceptions of non-immigrants who are local Turkish citizens. Specifically, this study explores the perceptions of Turkish university students towards their Syrian classmates. The data of this qualitative inquiry were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed by content analysis technique. The findings reveal that most participants have serious concerns about Syrians’ access to universities in Turkey. Nevertheless, they surprisingly support their Syrian classmates' participation in their classrooms.
Highlights
Since the crisis in Syria began, it has always been on the priority agenda of neighboring Turkey
Recent research (Erdoğan, 2014a; Gürsul, Terek Ünal, Aktürk, & Şahin, 2016) indicates that even if the war in Syria comes to an end, the Syrian guests2 have the tendency of continuing their residence in Turkey
The Perceptions Towards the Internationalization of Higher Education This section includes the explorations about the participants' perspectives towards a broad topic
Summary
Since the crisis in Syria began, it has always been on the priority agenda of neighboring Turkey. Recent research (Erdoğan, 2014a; Gürsul, Terek Ünal, Aktürk, & Şahin, 2016) indicates that even if the war in Syria comes to an end, the Syrian guests have the tendency of continuing their residence in Turkey. This confirms the idea that the crisis was an "unprecedented case" and seems to be "a long-term issue" The concept of forced migration is discussed in detail In this discussion, the definition of the concept, and the reasons why people are forced to migrate and historic cases of forced migration are touched upon. Neighboring to Syria, Turkey's political attitudes towards the crisis in Syria and the migration waves from Syria to Turkey are referred in an elaborative way
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