Refugees In Turkey Research Articles

Understanding location choice of Syrian refugees from country to neighbourhood level: Opportunities, restrictions and expectations

This study aimed to delve into distinct strands of the location choice (LC) of Syrian refugees by uncovering its determinants at country, city and neighbourhood levels from the narratives, along with the help of content analysis. Findings providing an aggregate explanation of the Syrian emplacement process revealed that Syrian refugees in Turkey, as active agents in the process, make their destination choices within opportunities and restrictions of different scales through the contribution of other agents, places and processes. Findings emphasizing time- and context-specific features - the transitivity, interrelatedness and multi-dimensionality (legal, economic, socio-cultural and spatial) of determinants of LC - showed that the opportunities and restrictions of LC influence Syrians’ future expectations.

Do refugees cause crime?

• There is not any statistically significant impact of the Syrian refugees on crime rates in Turkey in the short-run (1-year after the treatment). • Staggered difference-in-differences analysis shows that the provinces where refugees make up over 1 percent of the total population do not demonstrate any statistically significant impact on their crime rates in the long run, either. • There is a negative impact of treatment intensity on crime rates per capita when the impact of refugee population share is analyzed using an instrumental variables strategy. The same analysis for the crime rates per native resident produces null effects. • Overall, the empirical analyses provide causal evidence for a rather lower propensity of crime commitment among the Syrian refugees in Turkey compared to the country’s native population. The null effects of refugees on crime rates per native resident, on the other hand, can be interpreted as a non-significant spillover effect of refugees on native criminality. • Higher expected costs of crime commitment for refugees such as deportation and negligible adverse impacts of them, on average, on the natives’ labor market outcomes, among other mechanisms, might have played an important role in these findings. The impact of immigration on crime continues to stir heated debates in public policy circles around the world. Surveys indicate that host societies favor controversial measures because they are concerned about what they perceive to be an impingement exacted on their security with each new wave of migration. Seeking whether there is any truth to such perceptions, this paper analyzes the refugees’ impact on crime rates, using the case of Turkey which has started to host the world’s largest refugee population within any national borders due to the Syrian civil war. In doing so, the paper employs instrumental variables, difference-in-differences (DiD), and staggered DiD methods to explain if the conflict-fleeing Syrians have pushed Turkey’s crime rates higher in the short and the long run. It also controls for a multitude of time-varying provincial characteristics and presents a battery of robustness checks against various identification threats. As a result, DiD estimates show that refugees do not have any causal effect on the crime rates in Turkey. More strikingly, its IV estimates provide evidence for a rather negative effect on the crime rates per capita whilst finding a null effect on the crime rates per native resident in particular.

Major health concerns of refugees in an emergency department: A singlecenter experience in the country hosting greatest number of refugees

Objective: Turkey hosts a large number of refugees. The extensive use of the emergency services (ED) created a high burden on the health care system. This study was conducted to determine ED utilization by refugees at a tertiary care center. Patients and Methods: Pediatric patients presenting with trauma and all adult patients were included in the study. Demographic information, country of origin, date of admission and triage category, complaint on admission, hospital resource utilization frequency, final diagnosis, and outcome of patients were recorded. Results: A total number of 762 patients (1266 cases) were included. The median age was 30 (range 23-39) and 317 (41.6%) were male. 627 (82.3%) of the patients were from Syria. Considering hospital resource utilization of 1266 cases, radiologic imaging was performed on 28.1% and laboratory testings were performed on 50.2% of cases. 1128 (89.1 %) of all cases were discharged, while 119/1266 (9.4 %) cases were admitted to wards and 19/1266 (1.5 %) cases to intensive care units. Conclusion: There is not enough data regarding in which health care areas refugees need care. Access to primary care specific to refugees may reduce ED utilization. Especially, routine gynecologic primary care and follow-up centers are needed for refugees in Turkey.

The impact of mass migration of Syrians on the Turkish labor market

We estimate the effects of the arrival of 2.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey as of the end of 2015 on the labor market outcomes of natives, using a difference-in-differences IV methodology. We find that the migrant influx has strong adverse effects on native workers in the informal sector, particularly on temporary wage workers, less-educated and young workers, women who are part-time employed and self-employed, and workers in agriculture and construction. At the same time, it has favorable effects on complementary workers in the formal sector; wage employment and wages of men in the formal sector increase—particularly in manufacturing. Increases in product market prices and capital investment in the treatment regions contribute to the rise in labor demand in the formal sector. The migrant impact on native men's total employment is null, whereas it is more adverse for women primarily because the migrant influx does not raise their employment in the formal sector—unlike for men. The adverse effects on the most vulnerable groups in the labor market and the rise in consumer prices imply that poverty might increase among these native groups.

Utilization of radiation therapy and predictors of noncompliance among Syrian refugees in Turkey

BackgroundAccess to cancer care is a problem that continues to plague refugees displaced from their home countries. The turbulent political crisis in Syria, which has led to millions of refugees seeking asylum in Turkey, merits further attention. We aimed to study the rate of utilization of radiation therapy among Syrian refugees with cancer living in Turkey in an attempt to identify the contributing factors predictive of non-compliance with prescribed RT.MethodsIn this retrospective review of 14 institutional databases, Syrian refugee patients in Turkey with a cancer diagnosis from January 2015 to December 2019 who were treated with RT were identified. The demographic data, treatment compliance rates, and toxicity outcomes in these patients were surveyed. Variable predictors of noncompliance such as age, sex, diagnosis, treatment length, and toxicity were studied. The association between these variables and patient noncompliance was determined.ResultsWe identified 10,537 patients who were diagnosed with cancer during the study period, of whom 1010 (9.6%) patients were treated with RT. Breast cancer (30%) and lung cancer (14%) were the most common diagnoses with up to 68% of patients diagnosed at an advanced stage (Stage III, IV). 20% of the patients were deemed noncompliant. Treatment with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (OR 1.61, 95% CI 1.06–2.46, p = 0.023) and living in a refugee camp (OR 3.62, 95% CI 2.43–5.19, p < 0.001) were associated with noncompliance. Age, sex and treatment length were not significantly associated with noncompliance.ConclusionsNoncompliance with radiotherapy among Syrian refugees in Turkey remains an area of concern with a multitude of factors contributing to these alarming numbers. Further studies to better ascertain the finer nuances of this intricately complex problem and a global combination of efforts can pave the way to providing a solution.

Migrant Sexualities, Queer Travelers: Iranian Bears and the Asylum of Translation in Turkey

Since the early 2000s, an increasing number of lgbt+ and queer Iranians have sought asylum through the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Turkey. As recent queer and feminist scholarship has demonstrated, a “gay enough” litmus test often determines whether asylum seekers will be recognized as having a credible fear of persecution. To unhcr officers conducting asylum interviews, a claimant’s gender nonconformity functions as a proxy for credibility. Self-identified bears, with their masculine gender expression, cannot pass this litmus test and thus are expected to confess an indifference to religion, or areligiosity. Arguing that expectations of gender nonconformity and areligiosity make the application process an asylum of translation for self-identified bear claimants from Iran, this article examines the discursive labyrinth asylum seekers must navigate to become legible and advances a novel conception of the twinned process of confession and translocation that asylum-seeking has become in countries of transit like Turkey.

Development level of hosting areas and the impact of refugees on natives’ labor market outcomes in Turkey

We examine how the impact of refugees on natives’ labor market outcomes varies by the development level of hosting areas, which has important implications for the optimal allocation of refugees across regions and countries. For this purpose, in the context of the largest refugee group in the world in a single country, Syrian refugees in Turkey, we exploit the significant variation in the development level across regions of Turkey, several of which host a substantial number of refugees. We find that the impact of refugees on natives’ labor market outcomes becomes significantly less adverse as the regional development level rises. For instance, the adverse effects of the refugee shock on women's employment and labor force participation observed at the mean level of development vanish at high levels of development. Moreover, while the refugee impact on men's employment is negative for the least developed regions, it is positive for highly developed regions. Our findings imply that developed regions and countries are better positioned to protect their local population from the short-term adverse effects of refugees in the labor market.

Child Labor Among Syrian Refugees in Turkey

Nearly 4 million Syrian refugees, including more than 1.8 million Syrian children, fled to Turkey during the Syrian war, where they face many challenges to rebuild their lives. They are confronted with restrictions on their residence status and access to the labor market, limiting their formal employment opportunities. Poverty and labor exploitation are widespread consequences, and to make ends meet, children are driven into the workforce. In Turkey, child labor among Turkish nationals is also widespread as follows from the Turkish national child labor survey from 2019, creating a fertile ground for Syrian children to take up work. Although child labor among the Syrian refugee population is gaining increasing attention among scholars and humanitarian actors, knowledge about its extent or characteristics remains limited. Drawing on a survey conducted in late 2020, this paper contributes to a deeper and more numerically based understanding of the current situation of Syrian minor workers in Turkey. The quantitative results of our research are compared with the Turkish national child labor survey, highlighting the differences and commonalities between Syrian and Turkish children working in the country and looking into the impact of the lack of permanent residency on the prevalence of child labor. Our findings suggest that Syrian children enter the labor force at a younger age and have less access to education while working very long hours and earning low wages. The study thus demonstrates the specific vulnerabilities of Syrian children to labor exploitation.

Teacher candidates’ ideological tensions and covert metaphors about Syrian refugees in Turkey: Critical discourse analysis of telecollaboration

This study draws data from an asynchronous discussion to which teacher candidates (TCs) from France, Turkey, and USA contributed as part of their participation in a semester-long telecollaboration in 2017. The analysis focused on the contributions of TCs (n=34) from Turkey and explored how they represented Syrian refugees in their responses to a question about refugees and immigration in their country. Using critical discourse analysis, the study examined metaphorical expressions in participants’ representation of Syrian refugees in Turkey. Findings present six metaphorical constellations about Turkey's acceptance of refugees fleeing the Syrian war and these metaphors involve three ideological tensions that were dominant in TCs’ discourse: (a) similarity and togetherness/difference and separation, (b) gift/scarcity, (c) openness and bridging/spreading and disruption. The paper discusses these tensions in relation to the earlier research on the use of metaphors in discourses about immigrants and provides implications for educating teachers to work with refugee children.

When they want to take away what is “ours”: Collective ownership threat and negative reactions towards refugees

People can display negative reactions towards those who challenge their sense of psychological ownership. We tested whether natives would show negativity towards refugees upon perceiving collective ownership threat (COT)—the fear of losing control over a territory that is perceived to be “ours”—in the context of mass immigration (Syrian refugees in Turkey; total N = 1,598). Correlational Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated COT to be associated with intolerance and negative reactions towards refugees through negative intergroup emotions (anger specifically). Preregistered experimental studies demonstrated that while there was no causal effect of COT in neighborhoods with relatively high refugee concentration (Study 3a), COT decreased outgroup tolerance and increased defensive reactions towards Syrian refugees via outgroup anger among a more general community sample (Study 3b). The wider intergroup implications of the fear of losing one’s sense of territorial ownership are discussed.

Who is (un)deserving? Differential healthcare access and the interplay between social and symbolic boundary-drawing towards Syrian refugees in Turkey

ABSTRACT Although the degree to which social services should be extended to migrant groups by the state has occupied migration and welfare scholars’ agenda for a long time, how perceptions of deservingness on migrant groups’ social welfare entitlements can show a constraining character and rigidify boundaries have not yet received the full attention it deserves. Based on a qualitative case study with Turkish citizens in Adana, this paper explores how differential policies on healthcare access can shape insiders’ narratives on outsiders and grounds for social and symbolic boundaries; and how boundary work interacts with insiders’ perceptions of welfare deservingness. The findings indicate that, facing unequal access to healthcare, host society members define institutionalised worthiness between Turkish citizens and Syrian refugees. The mobilisation of institutional worthiness with regards to differential healthcare access, therefore, not only forges host society members’ perspectives towards Syrians, but also the degree of deservingness regarding who contributes more to the national well-being and who deserves more benefits.

Political Discourse and Public Attitudes toward Syrian Refugees in Turkey

Sustaining positive attitudes toward refugees is a priority as refugee crises surge worldwide. This study draws on eighty-five in-depth interviews with citizens in four provinces across Turkey. We identified prominent frames from Turkish political discourse and asked individuals to recount their self-narratives of attitude formation about Syrian refugees. We find that most-respondents' narratives included multiple frames, confirming that attitudes are often products of contradictory factors. Furthermore, humanitarianism and shared religion, frames thought to support positive attitudes, did not have such straightforward associations here. Humanitarianism was a positive force early, but had limits as compassion fatigue set in, and respondents described polarizing differences in religious practices rather than shared religion. Our work highlights the importance of examining attitude formation in non-Western settings for understanding views about and supporting societal inclusion of refugees.

A More Effective Refugee Policy: Reinvestigating the Socio-Economic Composition of Syrian Refugees in Turkey

This paper analyzes the socio-economic composition of Syrian refugees in Turkey and the potential it offers for facilitating the planning of refugee policy. The most severe humanitarian crisis since WWII, the Syrian conflict has already lasted for more than 10 years. Turkey is hosting almost four million Syrians –more than any other country. Given the prolonged nature of the conflict and the slim hope of a quick resolution, various studies and reports have suggested that Turkey should develop a policy of integration. While most of the literature on Syrian refugees has categorized them as homogenous people in need, the findings from this study suggest that the socio-economic composition of Syrian refugees is diversified and can affect the kind of refugee policy that could be implemented. This paper argues that reinvestigating the group’s diversified socio-economic composition could facilitate the planning of an effective refugee policy in Turkey.

Evaluation of the National Health System Utilization Status of the Syrian Refugees in Turkey Between 2011 and 2017.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the status of the Syrian refugees (SR) in Turkey in terms of using the National Health System (NHS) between 2011 and 2017. The study is a descriptive and cross-sectional epidemiological research ORACLE SQL Developer program was used for data analysis, and frequency analyzes regarding the person, place, and time characteristics of the health services that SR received between 2011 and 2017 were presented. The SRs benefited from NHS hospital services approximately 35 million times (34,973,029). Approximately 40% of the SRs that benefited from the NHS are under the age of 18. The proportion of those under 5 y old is 15.8%; 55.8% of the SRs that benefited from the NHS are women. The utilization status of the SRs from the NHS by region is as follows: 33.4% Mediterranean Region, 29.2% Southeastern Anatolia Region, and 19.0% Marmara Region. The types of health institutions that the SRs used are as follows: 44.0% state hospitals, 15.0% family medicine centers, and 13.3% training and research hospitals. A total of 16,009,524 cases were intervened as part of EMS. Syrian refugees in Turkey comprehensively benefited from primary, secondary, and tertiary health services free of charge between 2011 and 2017 in Turkey. It is seen that they have access to private and high-cost health services, such as air ambulance, cancer treatment, and dental treatment.

From social capital to social cohesion: Syrian refugees in Turkey and the role of NGOs as intermediaries

ABSTRACT Since the first Syrian refugees arrived in Turkey with the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, NGOs have been a crucial actor in first distributing humanitarian aid and later facilitating refugees’ access to education, employment, and healthcare services. More recently, as intercommunal tension between Syrian refugees and the Turkish community has been increasing, many NGOs shifted their focus in building refugees’ social cohesion in Turkey. This study examines these efforts from a social capital perspective. We interviewed a total of twelve local/national, international and Syrian community-led NGOs working with refugees in İstanbul. We found that the intercommunal activities promoted by NGOs provide a space for both the Turkish and Syrian communities to meet, whose pathways would likely not cross otherwise. However, our study showed serious limitations in building bridging social capital as these activities attract participants already open to intercommunal dialogue and the language barrier hinders the sustainability of the relations. At the same time, however, we found that projects connecting refugees with people or institutions of authority have the potential to enhance social cohesion. These activities can facilitate refugees’ adaptation to the national system, which in turn entails more stable and sustainable relationship with Turkish people.

Problems Encountered in The Education of Refugees in Turkey

This study aims to investigate the educational problems of refugee students of Syrian origin. It is a qualitative research designed as a phenomenological study. Phenomenology, a qualitative research method, was the design of choice. The sample group consisted of two administrators, two school counselors, and 11 classroom teachers from a temporary education center in Altındağ/Ankara, Turkey. The data of the study were collected using the interview method. The data were analyzed using content analysis. According to the research findings, Syrian refugee children face socio-emotional, family, language, and school problems and hate speech, discrimination, isolation, and exclusion. Syrian refugee children should undergo an orientation and preparation program before enrolling in Turkey's public schools. Seminars should be offered to the Turkish population to help them develop empathy for refugees and understand what they are going through. Teachers should be trained in multicultural education.

A Qualitative Analysis of Self-Determination and Psychological Adjustment of Syrian Refugees in Turkey: Teachers' Perspective

This qualitative research explored Syrian refugees’ self-determination and psychosocial adjustment in Turkey and teachers’ experience working with refugees. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews from 12 vocational and language teachers (Mage = 34.27, SDage = 4.94) who had an average of 9.58-year teaching experience and at least one year of teaching Syrian forcibly displaced people and refugees. The content analysis revealed three overarching themes: i) the needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness facilitate refugees’ adjustment in dealing with resettlement stressors; ii) trauma experience interferes with refugees’ adjustment; iii) working with refugees transforms teachers to become more tolerant, resilient, patriotic, sensitive to diversity, and grateful for their relationships. The findings may stimulate psychosocial interventions and policies that would mitigate contextual barriers as well as create an inclusive psychosocial environment. Refugees are likely to benefıt from a nurturing environment and teachers are likely to benefit from trainings focusing on trauma informed teaching skills.

Shelter from the storm: health service access and utilization among Syrian refugees in Turkey

Shelter from the storm: health service access and utilization among Syrian refugees in Turkey

Refugees and Asylum Seekers In Turkey During The Covid-19 Pandemic

Turkey is one of the most bypassed countries and is occupied by refugees and asylum seekers coming from the Middle East. The problem of refugees in Turkey has become more complicated after the outbreak of the Corona Virus (COVID-19), so that according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), refugees are the most vulnerable to COVID-19. This study aims to describe how the Turkish government's efforts in providing protection to refugees from the dangers of the spread of COVID-19. This study adapts qualitative methods by utilizing news, journals and books as secondary data. This study found that Turkey has made various efforts by following the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO) and also collaborating with UNHCR to protect refugees from COVID-19

Whose Crisis? Syrian Refugees and the Turkish Stage

Since the eruption of the Syrian civil war in 2011, the arrival of refugees in Turkey has been unprecedented in the country's history. Theatre practitioners have been slow to address this migratory moment, but an exception has been Istanbul-based Dostlar Tiyatrosu's 2017 production Göçmenleeeer, a translation of Romanian–French playwright Matéi Visniec's Migraaaants. Developed in the context of Europe's own migratory ‘crisis’, Migraaaants is composed of a series of vignettes that critique European refugee policy and the deadly economies that it has prompted in the continent's borderlands. What happens when Migraaaants is produced in a national context where the binary of European ‘hosts’ and non-European ‘refugees’ gives way to another set of political identities? How do we assess the emergence of a shared paradigm of ‘crisis’? And finally, where does crisis stand in relation to our ability to imagine a transnational aesthetics of political resistance to anti-immigration policies?