Case Study: Syrian Refugees’ Safety Issues In Turkey

There is no justification that Syrian crisis is one of the most devastating armed conflict / war during the 21st century, yet. Because of this crisis, there were 585.000 people passed away and 2 million people were injured several ways and almost 12 million people had forced to leave on their own places and became an immigrants / IDPs (internally displaced people). This war has affected on not only Syria, but also its neighborhoods such as Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Iraq. This paper aims to explain the effects of Syrian crisis to Turkey and safety situations of refugees inside the host country regarding legally and physically due to the high influences. At this point, this correlation is strictly integrated each other and the things might be harder to solved because of current political, financial and social dynamics in Turkey.

The mass migration or mass influx concept is not too narrow to Turkish society. The Anatolia, where has been called, traditional Turkish territory has faced several mass influxes since the Ottoman-Russian War in 1878, which is called 93 War by Turkish historians. The transition period from Ottoman Empire to Republic of Turkey, these kind of mass influxes happened during the Balkan Wars and the time of WWI (World War I). During the establishment of Young Turkish Republic, there were other immigrations to Anatolia / Turkish territories such as population exchange with Greece in 1923 and 340.000 ethnic Turks expelled by Bulgaria in 1989. Overall, between 1923 and 1990, at least 1,4 million people immigrated to Turkey primarily from the Balkans, but also from the Caucasus and Central Asia. However, the influx of Syrians is different size and nature from these previous population influxes. These earlier immigrations involved groups who were either ethnic Turks or in the case of many arrivals from Balkans, the Black Sea and Central Asia- non-Turkish Sunni Muslims who are open to adaptation into Turkish society. After a generation, these immigrants were absorbed into the Turkish melting pot and largely integrated into Turkish society.[1]

The Syrian Crisis in Turkey goes back to the first days in the Syrian Civil War. The first Syrians who escaped from Assad regime, come to Turkey in 2011 that numbers were 252. For a while, Turkish decision makers implemented open door policy through Syrian vulnerable who wants to arrive in Turkey in that days. Nonetheless, huge immigration from Syria created a number of economical and security problems in Turkey, which it is mentioned in the further paragraphs. That is the reason why Turkish government took some decisions to limit influx from Syria. The first precaution is that Turkish decision makers took steps in 2016 in order to limit the number of refugees and gain control over the composition of the refugee flow. It ended its visa free policy for Syrian’s arriving by air and sea, and it began building a security barrier along its Syrians borders. It also amended its 2013 Law and Foreigners and International Protection (LFIP) to allow deportation of those demand to be associated with terrorism or otherwise constituting a threat to public order.[2]

The other considerable thing about this issue is that Turkish decision makers have been very carefully about its call through Syrians. The Republic of Turkey always calls Syrians “guests” rather than “refugees” which is contradicted to Geneva Convention Rights. Meanwhile, the Turkish government announced that it would consider them as people under Temporary Protection (TP) and the use of terms guests come to be used less in both formal and informal discourse.

As it mentioned previous paragraph, the immigration reasoned several financial and security problems in the Turkish society that is why tension among two communities have increased from time to time. Turkey is categorized developing country which is the member of G-20, OECD (Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development) and European Council (EC). However, it has remarkable financial problems because of its dependance on foreign resources and other structural difficulties. In 2020, Turkey has %12,7 unemployment rate and over %14 inflation rate, which is quite dramatic when it is assessed with over 4 million refugees in the country. It is worth to mention that Turkey – Syria trade indicators were over 2 billion USD dollars before the crisis; however, this trade is almost disappeared in these days. Thus, the border cities in Turkey (Turkey-Syria border is the lengthiest one) is totally damaged in terms of economic way. As decreasing the trade with Syria, as local economies in south east part of Turkey have been weakened in an economic manner. Besides, those cities such as Hatay, Kilis, Gaziantep, ?anl?urfa, Adana, Mardin, hugely affected on mass influx because of its geographic locations to the borders. Under these circumstances, the tension generally occurs in those cities among Turkish and Syrian societies.

On the other side, Syrians are not only living on the border cities in Turkey. They have been spread every corner of the country. At this point, I would like to give you an example about three metropolises in Turkey, where are Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara.??

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There is no justification that Istanbul is the most important city in Turkey both financially, culturally and demographically. This occasion is same for Syrians, as well. Istanbul hosts over 600.000 Syrian refugees nowadays, which is the number even higher than rural cities in Turkey. Due to the reason of that Istanbul is the heart of the economy in the country and most of the Syrian refugees have chosen to come there, work and maintain their lives. However, their arrivals created additional financial problems for some Turkish citizens, especially low-level income population since Syrians started to work less salaries than Turkish one and it makes them unemployed so that the looking of perspective through Syrians is annoyed, unfortunately. When it is considered to Izmir, it is totally different story. The host society in Izmir is the most secular- modernist one and the overlooking of Syrians in Izmir is in a problematic manner socially rather than financially. Approximately 150.000 Syrians are living in Izmir nowadays and it is not the desired thing in Izmir for native society. The third one, Ankara, is the capital city of Turkey, has different dynamics than other two metropolitans in the country. Syrians are living specific neighborhoods in the city; in one way they are living in the ghettos. There are no huge number Syrians in the capital when it is compared to Istanbul and Izmir because of lacking job opportunities, however, it is still numbered over 90.000 people. Nevertheless, it is well- known that Syrians face discriminative policies and procedures in Ankara because of its nationalist and conservatist background. Besides, not only these cities, but also every corner of the country, Turkish citizens perceive Syrians as a potential security threat because of their poor economic conditions and life- styles, which is different than Turkish culture. This is the significant reason why the tension occurs in Turkey from time to time.

Until the assessments and information about Syrians is one part of the coins, which reflects the host community’s perception. However, there is another side of the coin that show us the perception of Syrian refugees and their problems which the have faced in Turkey so far. The first issue that Syrians have met in Turkey is low employability problems. The main reason of the problem is low level of education and technical and technical skills for Syrians. Actually, there is no doubt that Syrians have been deprived of qualified educational skills because of the war in their country. Even though some of them have adequate diploma in Syria, they are not able to proof their qualification and talent into Turkey because of some bureaucratic barriers in Turkey. On the other side, whether they are educated or not, they have to work in order to maintain their lives so that those Syrians endure to work low salary jobs and those jobs are not enough to maintain their lives in an appropriate way. This is a good example about life conditions for Syrians especially who are living in the metropolis cities in Turkey. “The main priorities for refugees in this category are unifying their family and meeting basic needs. Strategies and choices are limited. Daily labour, such as construction or cleaning, is common. Interviewees said that construction was one of the more difficult jobs in Istanbul, in terms of the physical toll as well as intermittent availability. It pays about 50–60 Lira ($17–20) per day. Some refugees in this category live with their family or a number of families or – if men – with other men. Others live at their place of work or are forced to keep moving. Although some refugees have received support from friends, this tends to be on a small scale and mostly related to accommodation. Similar to refugees in the struggling category, formal assistance – through municipalities, Turkish or Syrian NGOs or multi-service centres20 – is ad hoc. With a few exceptions, the refugees in this category had not received assistance. One staff member of an NGO in Istanbul said that each month a handful of families request help to return to the camps in the south. This is viewed as a last resort for people who cannot survive in Istanbul”[3]

The language barrier is another significant problem for Syrians in Turkey. As well known, language is the most important indicator in a society regarding adaptation and dissociation. Unfortunately, there is not enough capacity to cope with language barriers in Turkish education system because of mass- influx and other institutional problems. On the other side, most of the Syrians do not have enough chance to learn Turkish language because of their educational level and community life, which refers they are living together and not interact with host community. If it is assessed carefully, it is easily seen that while younger male Syrians are eager to learn Turkish language, older one and females are not look forward to learn it. This example related to one of Syrian family considerably shows us the difficulties of Syrians about language barriers and some of opinions about it. “Fatma, a 32-year-old divorcee from Aleppo now living in Ankara, offers her family as a case in point. She has been in Turkey since 2014 and has five children: Fatma (13), Miriam (12), Aya (10), Sayyid (nine), and Cuma (four).

During their first year in Turkey, no one went to school. Her three eldest children, all daughters, then spent one year in an Arabic-language centre before the transportation costs became too high and they had to be pulled out.

In September 2017, with the help of the EU-funded Conditional Cash Transfer for Education (CCTE), which provides financial incentives to encourage refugee children to attend school regularly, they re-enrolled, this time at a Turkish public school. Sayyid, the nine-year-old boy, started with them.

The children were placed according to their age, not ability, even though some had attended little to no school and couldn’t effectively read, write, or even understand Turkish.

The eldest daughter, in particular, is struggling. During an interview with her mother at home, Fatma was there, skipping school. Fatma said her science teacher doesn’t let her attend class if she doesn’t do her homework, and she ends up having to stand outside the classroom by a garbage can. Consequently, she only attends school three days a week, the non-science days.

“When they assign homework, the teacher writes it on the board and I don’t understand it,” she explained. Her younger siblings were faring better, as they had less homework and were finding it easier to catch up with the language.

But their mother isn’t happy they aren’t studying in Arabic, which she regards as their own language. She said she was prepared to pay additional fees to transport them to the Arabic-language centre even though the Turkish public school is nearby and they can walk there in 10 minutes. [4] In light with these kinds of examples, it is certain that language barrier should be overcome in order to integrate into the Turkish society and decrease the level of tension and feel themselves more secure for their further lives.

The other one is restrained access to information and services by Turkish governments. This is another considerable issue among immigrated society. It is hard to believe that there are so many Syrian refugees in Turkey who lives and works illegally because of lacking knowledge about government services or lack of financial capacity to adopt themselves into Turkey’s rules and regulations. It can be easily seen that the issue is not only registration, but also accessing to health, education and some other services in Turkey. At this point, I would like to give some indicators about Syrian refugees in Turkey so that it could be well- understood about life- conditions and feelings and how they are living inside the Turkey as a “guest”. The majority of the Syrian refugees are employed in the manufacturing sector, mainly in the textile industry, as well as in construction and trade and hospital sectors. As you can see in the chart below, these industries are generally low- income job opportunities and Syrians have to work in these jobs because of maintain their lives while they gain much less salary than Turkish citizens, they do same seized jobs when compared. [5]

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?Refugees often face poor working conditions, which are next to occupational safety and health risks, they work long hours and earn below the minimum wage, as mentioned above. Limited bargaining power, the need to earn an income, as well as a lack of language skills, make it challenging for refugees to change these conditions. According to an ILO (International Labour Organization) study based on 2017, Syrian men earned on average TRY 1,337 %5 below the minimum wage applicable in 2017- and Syrian women earned TRY 1,083. On average, Syrian women earned almost %20 less than their male counterparts and nearly %25 below the minimum wage. Moreover, %75 of Syrian workers put in more than 45 hours per week in 2017, and nearly %9,8 hard extreme working weeks of more than 70 hours. [6]

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Possessing work permit is another important problem for Syrians since no one is able to work in Turkey legally with health insurance without work permit. Meanwhile, the worst thing is Syrians do not have right to apply work permits on behalf of themselves. Instead, their bosses have to apply the procedures and get their work permits but no owner wants to recruit someone without work permits that is the reason why this dilemma suffers Syrian refugees. Here you can find an example about this issue. “In Syria, I was an engineer – servicing elevators – working for a Japanese company … International companies in Turkey told me that I have to be a Turkish citizen to give me work. Despite this, I worked for one year at night for a small Turkish company, working from 7 pm to 5 am. I worked when it was not controlled. My boss didn’t want to help me get a work permit, because the boss would have to pay for the permit and insurance … Instead, they gave me work at night and a low salary. I was paid 2,200 Lira [$733] and Turkish people doing the same job earned 8,000 Lira [$2,667]. I was so upset with the experience in working with a Turkish company, I don’t want to try with another.[7]

It is worth to mention that harassment is one of the undesired things among women not only Syrians but also Turkish and other identities as well. However, Syrian women are more open to abuse sexually because of their poor life conditions. While they try to survive and gain their lives, some dishonest owner or supervisor try to abuse them in a sexual manner. Under this circumstance, I would like to give you some example about this harassment issue for your kind attention. “I worked at a Libyan real estate company for a month, but the salary was low and I was harassed … Because I am a single woman with children, it makes people think that they can exploit me and make illegal relations with me. I am very worried about my children, and have a lot of bad dreams. They tried in many ways [to sexually harass me] but I resisted; I was scared about my young daughter. I worked in real estate for about two weeks with a Syrian boss. He gave me only 300 Lira ($100), but it should have been 600 Lira ($200). I left the job because the Syrian boss was harassing me. I am not looking for work now, as I am too worried about harassment. But I know that my family can only support me for another year or two.”[8]

Yet, there are promising stories that we can inspire and be hopeful for the coming future. “Skilled refugees, such as doctors, scientists, accountants, entrepreneurs, artisans, craftspeople and educators, struggled to find jobs to match their educational background and professional profile. Those that managed to find jobs related to their skill sets worked mostly for Syrian-owned companies or at Syrian schools. Generally, these jobs did not last long or the wages were considered too low. Three cases below provide examples. Ali is a chemist who arrived in Turkey 18 months ago. It was not possible for him to find a job in his field, so he worked at a textile workshop. Friends from Homs initiated a study to understand the impact of weapons and chemicals related to the war on the agriculture and soil/ fertilizer composition in Syria, and they hired him. His work relates to chemical analysis, which he is happy about, but he still lives his life day to day. All I did was work and sleep when I worked at the sewing workshop. Now I work with friends, and life is better … I am very lucky, very few people have my situation, rich friends who own their own company and can employ me … Today I have money, a job and tomorrow I may not have that. The Turkish government could say goodbye and send us somewhere, I don’t know. The Turkish are not our government … Turkey will not give Syrians nationality; we are just here temporarily. Following bad experiences, Najib gave up trying to find something within his skill set, and is now working at a restaurant. “ [9]

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To sum up, it is certain that Syrian crisis deeply affect on both refugees and host communities, as well. The thing is Syrians think that they are discriminated and isolated from rest of the society and dragged to isolation. Nonetheless, host community thinks that Syrians totally damages the nature of its socio- economic balance. According to them, Syrians are the reason of some terrorist activities and rapidly collapsing economy in Turkey. Actually, as pointed out some example above, both of the argument is not totally true or not. It is normal that there might be increasing tension among the societies because of extraordinary situation, however, the decision makers should take necessary precautions and policies in order to avoid that tensions. In my opinion, the most important thing is economy in these days because the first motivation of host community about its aggression to Syrians is financial reasons. They also think that they do not have enough income to live better but Syrians take their share without their consent. That is why the Turkish decision maker has to allocate job opportunities among Syrians in a particular way so that the perspective of Turkish citizens might change in the future. On the other side, it is certain that Syrians have serious problems in the society and the responsibility of government is solving those problems including socially, financially and administratively.

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???????????????????????????????????????????????RESOURCES

·??????https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/reports/2019/03/13/467183/turkeys-refugee-dilemma/

·??????The lives and livelihoods of Syrian refugees A study of refugee perspectives and their institutional environment in Turkey and Jordan Catherine Bellamy, Simone Haysom, Caitlin Wake and Veronique Barbelet February 2017, Humanitarian Policy Group Overseas Development Institute 203 Blackfriars Road London SE1 8NJ United Kingdom

·??????https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/feature/2018/04/05/money-culture-language-barriers-turkey-s-bid-end-refugee-only-schools

https://www.ilo.org/ankara/projects/WCMS_379375

[1] https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/reports/2019/03/13/467183/turkeys-refugee-dilemma/

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[2] Ibid

[3] The lives and livelihoods of Syrian refugees A study of refugee perspectives and their institutional environment in Turkey and Jordan Catherine Bellamy, Simone Haysom, Caitlin Wake and Veronique Barbelet February 2017, Humanitarian Policy Group Overseas Development Institute 203 Blackfriars Road London SE1 8NJ United Kingdom

[4] https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/feature/2018/04/05/money-culture-language-barriers-turkey-s-bid-end-refugee-only-schools

[5] https://www.ilo.org/ankara/projects/WCMS_379375/lang--en/index.htm

[6] Ibid

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[8] The lives and livelihoods of Syrian refugees A study of refugee perspectives and their institutional environment in Turkey and Jordan Catherine Bellamy, Simone Haysom, Caitlin Wake and Veronique Barbelet February 2017, Humanitarian Policy Group Overseas Development Institute 203 Blackfriars Road London SE1 8NJ United Kingdom

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[9] Ibid