Forced Migration, Unwanted Acceptance, Uncertain Future of Syrian Refugees: The Struggle for Legal Status

Introduction

Through the human history, people have migrated from one country to another individually or collectively. It effects the current distribution of population in the world and also political, social, economic and cultural structures of the countries. The reasons why people immigrate are to avoid from destructive natural conditions and pressure, to live in safer places, to create social groups, so in general improve their quality of life. Surges of migration have continued since the beginning of human history, but recent migration movements have been changing in terms of quality and quantity.

For this reason, we can define our age by the phrase- ‘Migration Age’ as Gasset did. Also, Benhabib (2006: 16) also stated that international migration is at the center of many significant international events that shapes the whole world. Global migration which is discusses in Western countries too often leads to ethnic and cultural changes in countries and also affects the political, social, economic and cultural dynamics of the world (Somersan, 2004: 152).

As a result of this global migration, many people who lose their civil right confront terrible situations and this is a primary problem of the world (Soysal, 2010: 495). In this regard, it can be said that immigration and emigration affect the political, social, economic and cultural structures of both immigrant and emigrant countries in a positive and negative way.

In conclusion, the problem of migration and immigrants which is discussed too often by Western developed countries is also a problem for Turkey. Especially because of the political, social and economic crisis which have been occurred in neighboring countries of Turkey since 1980s, Turkey have become an immigration country and also path for many immigrants who have migrated to Western countries (İçduygu ve Damla, 2012: 7). After people who are not defined as ‘strangers’ not ‘immigrants’ have started to come to Turkey, the statue of Turkey in the international migration regimen changed (İçduygu, 2006: 11-21). Turkey was considered as ‘an emigration country previously, but recently it is known as ‘emigration country’, ‘immigration country’ and ‘transition country’.

Consequently, because of the recent developments in the world and the recent conditions which are result of social and economic changes in Turkey, Turkey has become “a transition country” on the one hand and “an immigrant country” on the other. This makes Turkey a country which is a home for a more permanent immigrant population. In parallel with the recent developments in the world and the political business cycles, Turkey has encountered with new population movements. In consideration of these, it is more understandable that Turkey has an immediate need to develop perspectives on migration and immigrants which have powerful impacts on social, economic, cultural and political aspects of the country as the increased population of immigrants has made the structures of most cities in Turkey more complicated.

In the circumstances, immigrants in Turkey, which is a country in both a qualitative and a quantitative transition process, struggle with social exclusion, discrimination, marginalization, illegal work, and poverty. In this regard, it is significant how Turkish people perceive migration, immigrants and refugee issue as Turkey will have to deal with international migration more.

Migration and immigration issues, which are multilayered, are increasingly varying. It is possible and even necessary to discuss these issues in many different perspectives. In this study, it is focused on the current situation of Syrian immigrants and the level of their adaptation to the society instead of the quality and quantity of their migration.

Social Cohesion and Adaptation

Syria is a country which is 911 kilometers far from Turkey and it is often discussed that there are some major similarities between these two countries in terms of their religiosity and ethnicity. However, research findings do not support this idea. Most Turkish people do not think that they are similar with Syrians in term of cultural background. While just 17.2% of Turkish people agree that they are similar with them, 70,6% of them do not (Erdoğan, 2015: 31).

When it comes to the migration, the most important issue that becomes a current one is social integration or adaptation due to the common perception that immigrants have negative impacts on the social and cultural fabric of the countries they migrate to. For this reason, immigrants are expected to adapt to lifestyles of these countries.

More clearly, it is expected from immigrants not only to adopt behavior patterns, social values and value judgments of the countries they migrate to but also to leave behind their own countries’ habits and traditions. Moreover, as the issue of adaptation immigrants is directly related to urban space, it is required that many institutions and organizations take active participation in the solution of this issue (Kaya, 2009: 17).

Nowadays, adaptation to urban space refers to a multi-faced political process. This process involves many needs, rights and problems such as taking shelter, healthcare services, receiving education, getting a job, language problems, political participation, interactions between different ethnic or religious identities and sex, age or ethnic discrimination and requires patience (Penninx vd., 2008:5).

The adaptation process of immigrants mainly includes three dimensions. The first one is legal dimension and refers that an immigrant has same legal rights with the citizens of the immigration countries. The second one is economic dimension and refers that an immigrant has a job to meet the cost and standard of living in accordance with the standards of the country in which s/he lives and also to build a sustainable future for both himself/herself and his/her family. The last one is social and cultural dimension. It means that an immigrant establishes social and cultural bonds and contributes to the society by expressing himself/herself without a fear of discrimination (Fielden, 2008:3).

Legal Status: The (Il)Legal Status of Immigrants

The legal status of Syrian immigrants in Turkey has been still ambiguous. At the beginning, because it was assumed that the Syrian civil war did not last too long, Turkey accepted Syrian people as guests without any legal status due to humanitarian reason. But, the status of Syrian immigrants has become more ambiguous with the prolongation of the Syrian civil war. Fundamentally, Turkey is a party to the 1951 Geneva Convention on the Legal Status of Refugees. However, as Turkey accepted this convention with the disadvantage of geographical limitation, Turkey can’t provide ‘refugee status’ people coming from non-European countries, so it has to accept them as ‘asylum seekers’. Syrian people coming since April 2011 were described as ‘guests’. Although, there is a risk of leading arbitrary practices towards Syrian people since the definition does not have any legal corresponding. For this reason, they were taken to the ‘temporary protection statuses’ since October 2011 in accordance with the 10^th Article of 1994 Regulations of Ministry of Internal Affairs. After that, the first legal arrangement which was considering Syrian refugees was a 62th directive and named as “Receiving and Sheltering Syrian Arab Republic Citizens Who Are Residing in Temporary Shelters in Turkey and in Syrian Arab Republic”. It was prepared on 30^th of March in 2012. By this directive, Syrians’ temporary protection statuses have been accepted legally (Orsam, 2014: 11).

The directive, which accepts Syrian refugees as "guests," allows Syrian refugees to obtain an identity card and to remain in the country for a temporary period of time. However, it doesn’t include any information about how long they are permitted to stay in Turkey. Along with all other non-European refugees who are not thought to be permanent, Syrian refugees’ statuses in Turkey and access to the rights are far from a right-based perspective. At the beginning of 2011, Syrians are accepted as guests, but now while most of them live in refugee camps, others live in different cities in Turkey with their own means. As long as the time that Syrian refugees’ stay in Turkey has lengthened out and their number has increased, it becomes more impossible that they will return their countries. Because of that, it is necessary to take legal and social actions in order to help Syrians in the process of integration. Instead of accepting as temporary issue to improve life standards of Syrians and to eliminate the obstacles in which they confront with to access their basic rights, a right-based perspective should be adopted to solve this issue (Kirişçi, 2014). At first, the description ‘guest’ seems to be a welcome, innocent and favorable adjective, but it points to a distressing situation for both sides. It also evokes a hierarchical relationship. This results that especially guests are treated as victims.

Syrians indicate that Turkish people have been very welcoming and also because their time of staying has lengthened out, their emotions and relationships between Turkish people have been affected in a positive way. It is very remarkable that the most disturbing thing for them is to describe them as guests as they have indicated since it is not a right to be a guest. If the time will be lengthened out more, the householder could remind them that they are guests and it means that they should know their own places and behave in accordance with their limits. So, in this context, ‘guest’ is used as a delimiter statement (Erdogan, 2015: 23).

Because of this situation which is resulted from the legal statuses of Syrians, there is an ambiguity about them and it makes their legal and social integration process more difficult. There are two kinds of ambiguous situations. The first one is related to their legal statuses. As indicated before, they live in Turkey under the temporary protection regime. It creates partial uncertainty for them before the law. In this context, this uncertainty makes locals to concern about their security needs more, to feel more anxious about their economic situations and to support the idea that refugees which are defined as ‘other’ or ‘enemy by locals must be dismissed from the country. Secondly, Syrians are precisely "threshold" positions. At the beginning of 20^th century, an anthropologist Van Gennep became the first person who used the term ‘threshold’. He developed the term for his discussion about cultural rituals and used it to point out the uncertain and in between situations that were experiences out of usual cultural and social relationships and rituals. For Syrian people, this threshold position leads them not to be a part of society completely. In conclusion, the threshold position brings with a situation such that neither they can be a part of society nor they can survive outside of the society (Akşit vd. 2016: 99).

In his ‘The Rites of Passage’ book which was published in 1909, Van Gennep mentioned some of the rites of passage such as adolescence, marriage, birth and the most important three phases which he confronted in these rites. According to him, there are three main phases of a rite. The first one is separation phase in which an individual or a group is separated from his/her/their past position or state. This is a preliminary phase which includes ceremonies such as purification, cutting etc. The second one 'threshold' corresponds to the in-between phase in which an individual or a group is separated from the previous state or position and cannot yet be integrated into the current one. The final one is the 'integration' phase in which an individual or a group has access to the new situation or position and it is socially accepted (Turner, 1997). According to Turner who examined the threshold phase, people in threshold are either here nor there. They are out of the social network which determines their cultural situations or positions and described as ‘invisibles’. In other words, the individual is between the two statutes and experiences the uncertainty and the absence of the 'statelessness'. The individual at this phase was neither past nor current. For this reason, it is a time when the individual is regarded as dangerous for both himself/ herself and for society; is a situation that is disconnected from society and free from statutory and outside control spaces (Turner, 1969: 358).

It is obvious that because of the current legal infrastructure of Turkey, it is depriving of an infrastructure that would respond Syrian refugees with a "rights-based" approach. In other words, starting with the identification of Syrians who have reached enormous numbers, there is no legal or logistical clarification for their situations or positions in the future. This uncertainty should be seen as a source of possible problems that would be experienced in the future.

It is seen as a big problem in Turkey that the time period of Syrian people has been continuously lengthened out. The rate of those who see it as a problem is 76.5% (81.7% in the region) and of those who support that Syrians should be kept in camps in the worst case is 72,6 % (80,2% in the region) (Erdogan, 2015: 38). These results show that locals are anxious because of the in-between status of Syrians and they experience difficulties in deciding whether Syrians are enemy or not. On the one hand, there is a common description ‘guest’ for Syrians which used consciously, but on the other hand, it is believed that it is safer to keep them in the camps (Man, 2016: 162).

Refugees’ homeless and inconsistent process of migration is disruptive for society. This process, in which people experience alienation and loneliness, is wearing and staggering for not only these refugees but also for the cities. “Refugees who are between to migrate or to stay have experienced the unpleasant feeling of threshold position” (Yaşar, 2014: 31).

Cultural/Social Situation: Dangerous ‘Other’ and Anxious ‘Me’

Social exclusion has become a concept that is not only limited to economic poverty but also points out the inadequacy of institutions that build social cohesion and includes other inadequacies in the society (Rodges vd., 1995: 4).

The main areas of Syrian refugees have been excluded socially as depriving them from being a citizen truly are: the democratic legal system enabling civil integration, the labor market enabling economic integration, the welfare system enabling social integration and the family and community system enabling interpersonal integrations (Berghman, 1995).

In many countries, it is known that negative and offensive attitudes towards refugees have been developed and this problem has been increasingly getting bigger. Because refugees are treated as ‘expendable’, ‘enemy’ and ‘waste’ in their own countries, they are also treated in a same way in other countries. Many countries take advantage of ‘these waste human’, ‘their children’ and even ‘their organs’ such as dumpster diving to find metal, nylon and iron. They are not subjects anymore but objects (Yaşar, 2014: 14).

It can be easily said that in almost all countries, there is no problem between the refugees who are forced to leave their countries and locals. However, it is obvious that negative attitudes and behaviors towards refugees in Turkey have increasingly begun to become an issue. It is also difficult for these people to be accepted in the places where they have to live. In different contexts, the levels of exclusion strategies change as the legitimizations arguments for these strategies change. In the construction of identity, the biological and cultural differences are put in center and incoherency between refugees and locals are emphasized.

The construction of identity is a dynamic process in which identity is formed through interaction between and against others in a group (İnaç, 2005: 15-16). Because at the first place, people and communities see and identify themselves with the eyes of others, others are important descriptors and complements of their identities in this process. Every identity is constructed by internalizing the others’ attitudes and behaviors. The comparison between "themselves’ and ‘others" has a strong impact on their sense of belonging and identity. As identities are constructed on the basis of differences with the "other", the same differences become means of prejudice and exclusion (Diez, 2004: 321). Identity is constructed when people identify themselves with the group and on the other hand understand that they are different from the group (Güleç, 2004: 72-75).

In this relationship, the reason why the differences are emphasized rather than similarities is to aim at lowering locals to the refugees’ levels or locals’ fear of losing their superiority positions. Because of these reasons, refugees are constantly reminded their positions by emphasizing the differences. This relationship, which is fundamentally formed through differences, also means the exclusion of refugees.

There have been many studies on the social cohesion and social acceptance processes of Syrians whom Turkish people have lived together for the past few years. The last research findings indicate that Turkey sheltered the greatest number of refugees. The UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) Turkish spokesman Selin Ünal, emphasized that it is very difficult to accept such a large number of refugees for a long period of time for our country and also expresses her appreciation of the hospitality and understanding of the Turkish society (dw.com, 2015). Although social acceptance takes place at a high level, it is emphasized that it is extremely important to manage the process well and gain social support. Especially, the conflict and tension between Syrian refugees and the locals have strengthened the social exclusion of Syrian refugees. In other words, while improving Syrians’ life conditions, the socio-psychological conditions and the social cohesion must be considered besides economic ones (Özdemir, 2016).

The refugees’ population explosion makes the structures of the many cities more complicated so that immigrants in Turkey, which is a country in both a qualitative and a quantitative transition process, struggle with social exclusion, discrimination, marginalization, illegal work, and poverty (Ünal, 2014: 68).

Social exclusion is a concept that is not only limited to economic poverty, but also includes all forms of poverty and indicates the inadequacy of institutions that provide social cohesion between the individual and the society (Rodges et al., 1995: 4). In a study conducted with British sample, social exclusion is defined as "inability to participate in the basic activities of the community in which the individual lives" (Burchardt et al., 2002: 30). When the issue of migration and refugees occurs intensely and uncontrollably, the threats of security such as fear of foreigners and ethnic violence arise and political, economic and socio-cultural structures are affected negatively (Deniz, 2014). The exclusion of these disadvantaged refugees creates the inability to participate in the basic activities of the society. Besides, this causes the social inequality and hierarchy. Moreover, this process determines the advantageous and disadvantaged groups of the society and shapes the distribution of resources among these groups with its social hierarchy (Bali, 2008). In this process named as social exclusion, refugees as disadvantaged group are exposed to some exclusionary practices pushing them out of the whole social, economic and cultural system.

As reflected in the discourses, it seems that the concerns of locals are shaped especially on the axis of "security" and "order", so locals mostly feel anxious about security in term of Syrian refugees. In this sense, since Syrian migrants, as reflected in the discourses, are often seen as a fear full of obscurity and anxiety, it is a topic which is associated with social security and insecurity and the provisions must be made for this topic.

The factors underlying this insecurity are the uncertainty and the obscurity. The worries about increasing the security in this direction lead to a more intense feeling of feeling constantly threatened. As a matter of fact, it is seen that Syrians are mostly defined as "dangerous strangers" or "potentially dangerous groups" in the discourses. Therefore, it is thought that Syrian immigrants, described as "dangerous groups", "criminal group" or "potentially criminal group", have begun to dominate the region, city or neighborhood where the locals live and in more general, locals have been increasingly perceived their country, region, city or neighborhood as full of dangerous strangers "(Ünal, 2014: 78).

In general, these attitudes which are toward all foreigners in Turkey also apply to Syrian refugees. It is important to note that because Turkish people have similarities with Syrians in terms of religiosity, ethnicity, location and history, their attitudes toward Syrians are always merciful and compassionate, but these attitudes start to change adversely because of the uncertainty and the extended duration of the residence of the Syrians.

In other words, research findings do not support that there are some major similarities between Turkish and Syrian people which are frequently mentioned as having 911 km limit with Turkey in terms of their religiosity and ethnicity. Turkish people do not have a positive look on ‘’they are culturally same with Syrians’. Only 17.2% of them agree with this statement. The statement that they are culturally different from Syrians was supported by extremely high rate of 70.6% (Erdogan, 2015: 31). In addition, 62.3% of the Turkish people believe that "Syrian refugees damage social morality and peace by committing crimes such as violence, theft, smuggling and prostitution in places where they are live (Erdoğan, 2015: 29).

Syrians become 'scapegoats' of many negative situations experienced in Turkey. Although in all studies, it has been found that the crime rate of Syrians is much lower than the locals’, locals have been still thought that Syrians commit crimes such as theft, prostitution, extortion.

Besides, there are many other arguments of locals to support that Syrians are harmful for economic, social, political and cultural structures of Turkey (Özekmekçi, 2010: 44). For example, one of them is that because Syrians work for low salaries, many employers can decrease the salaries and most of Turkish people become unemployed. Another is that Syrians’ high fertility rate can cause to collapse social system and jeopardize the national identity. So, it is obvious that the ‘Syrian brotherhood’ approach is not put into practice. The number of locals who emphasize the cultural differences, other them and define the residence of Syrians as a problem is really high. ‘Syrian brotherhood" approach has not been widely observed in the Turkish society. One of the most important detailed which is highlighted in the report is that the frequent repetition of ‘accepting them as guests’ especially at the beginning of migration movement is related to limitation of their rights.

The studies which are conducted in regions where refugees mostly live show that locals use the discriminatory language and think that that Syrians must go back to their home. Especially, the sentence "Syrian refugees must go to their home or must be sent off as soon as possible" is really discriminatory. These negative attitudes lead people to think that a collective movement or resistance against Syrians should be developed.

In this sense, first it creates collective consciousness and social cohesion to accept them as guests, but then it is used to set limits for Syrians. The aim of setting limits is to protect the race and the culture by showing them other’s distinctions so that locals can recognize the similarities and common sharing in their own culture. As a result, social exclusion against refugees, which has become a common act, emerges as an "ideological perception" in the form of "becoming against refugees" and "motivation to maintain unity against them" (İnce, 2011: 179). This ideological perception also manifests itself as a legitimate justification for ‘denying the refugees or the other’, ‘seeing them as threats’ and ‘sending them off’.

Economic Situation: Economic Exploitation

When the topic is social cohesion process of Syrians, economy which is one of the most important topics must be mentioned. Even though, an individual who doesn’t have deep knowledge on economy can understand that Syrians have a strong impact on economic resources. While the economic pie is getting smaller with the arrival of new refugees, it is also getting more difficult to obtain the current piece. For this reason, the main issue of Syrians’ migration is that the locals and refugees, who both are introverted and nervous groups, compete with each other for limited economic resources (Clark, 2008: 211).

It is a fact that it is more difficult and longer periods of time for refugees, who cannot get involved in the economic system and cannot have relationship network in this context, to adapt to the society. Cultural cohesion is, in any case, spontaneously overcome after one or two generations, but economic adaptation makes it much faster.

The existence of refugees also creates some results that can be evaluated in terms of economic policies. The main issue of Syrians’ migration is that the locals and refugees, who both are introverted and nervous groups, compete with each other for limited economic resources (Clark, 2008: 211).

Indeed, economic encounters are important indicators of the fact that it is not easy for Syrian refugees to adapt to the place where they came. In this sense, it is possible to say that in addition to locals’ anxiety about security, it is another issue or locals to share their economic resources with Syrians and this provides a basis for discriminative discourses (Ünal, 2014: 79).

In any economy related discussion about Syrian refuges, it is criticized that the government ignores their citizens and support the refugees financially. Also, it is supported that the government provide financial support for their poor citizens at the first place. Certainly, structural problems such as social inequalities and contradictions between classes also cause that some people take advantage of these disadvantaged situations of refugees and which, in turn, clinch these situations.

In many researches, it is aimed to find the reasons behind the anxieties and discriminations which are resulted from the existence of Syrian refugees. It is found that Turkish people especially care about the economic burden. 70.8% of them think that the economy is damaged because of the refugees. Moreover, 60.1% of them are against supporting Syrians financially while there are still many poor Turkish citizens (Erdogan, 2015: 26).

AFAD conducted a research with Syrians in refugee camps. Its results make locals’ economic worries more understandable as it indicated that 80% of Syrians aim at working in a job and most of the others has already worked in other cities, so there is an intensive entrance to the labor market. There are two possible consequences of this situation. The first is a decrease in the salaries and the other is unemployment. According to the TURKSTAT’ report, the unemployment has dramatically increased especially in the cities near the border of Syria border in three years. It should be noted that TURKSTAT has released the latest unemployment report in 2013, so there is no data after this year. When the unemployment reports of 2011, 2012 and 2013 are reviewed, it is seen that the unemployment in Şırnak, Batman, Siirt, Mardin, Sanliurfa and Diyarbakir have increased by 8-10 points in two years, but in contrast, the unemployment in Gaziantep, Adıyaman, Kilis and Ağrı has significantly decreased (TURKSTAT, 2011; TURKSTAT, 2012; TURKSTAT, 2013).

It is necessary to say that besides local’s reasonable or unreasonable attitudes toward Syrians, for sure, Syrians believe that they live worse economic conditions than locals do.

Work Permission as an Obstacle: Unemployment and Labor Exploitation

The "temporary protection" status of the Syrians, which is not evaluated under the refugee status of Turkey, is not sufficient for immigrants to benefit from refugee rights. The work permission is one of these rights. In order to solve this problem, many actions has been taken, but all is unsuccessful and still refugees do not permitted to work.

Syrians live with the help of financial support and their own savings for a time, but more than half of Syrians (%52.8) see unemployment as a problem (Karasu, 2016: 106) and indicate that they want to enter the workforce and fend for themselves. This makes locals especially live in the cities near the border annoyed. Because of cheap labor movement, they feel threatened and fear of losing their jobs, so that they protested and even though they attacked refugees. 56.1% of the Turkish people agree with the sentence “Syrians strip of our jobs”. As expected, the percentage of those who support this sentence in the cities near to the border is very high (68.9%) (Erdogan, 2015: 27).

The unemployment is a significant problem for refugees who face with this kind of reality. Even they find a job, they have to struggle with many other problems such as low salaries, negative attitudes, etc.

While most of them want to get a job, some of them do not look for a job because of labor exploitation. They are exposed to labor exploitation in many ways like no or low salary, forced labor, working overtime. In a research conducted in Konya, the findings show that Syrians are paid less than locals as well (Koyuncu, 2014: 100).

Syrians who have continued to work in uninsured day labor illegally are exposed to many injustice attitudes and their statuses are too open to be misused. Compared to the other workers, Syrians are paid less or late and even sometimes they are not paid. These are the most common problems that they face with in work life.

Working refugees give in these conditions. However, they are aware of injustices. In this context, there is an implicit agreement between employers and working Syrians which arises from the lack of legislation. This unfavorable situation does not only affect Syrian refugees but also cause the decrease in labor market, so other workers paid less as well. As a result, Turkish workers blame Syrians to lower the salaries. In this situation, Syrian refugees are victimized in both sides.

Result and Discussion

Results show that social exclusion is a term which has many dimensions such as economic, politic, psychological and cultural and it may result in many negative consequences. Immigrants who are socially excluded do not benefit from the rights which locals do. This inequality could rise in conflict between these two groups. When immigrants cannot satisfy their basic needs, they may try to improve their disadvantageous status in illegal ways. Furthermore, because of the social restriction and inequality, they may behave aggressively and harm the cohesion of the society. In addition, immigrants came to Turkey to live better life but when they do not feel themselves as part of the society and do not obey the country’s rules, it may result in a chaotic environment.

This situation shows that Syrians stay permanent in Turkey at least for a long time so that politics must be developed for refugees and immigrant in order to help them to adapt to the society in a healthy way.

In this context, firstly, refugees’ legal positions must be made clear in order to extinguish the uncertainty.

Moreover, in order to solve the most significant problem which is economic and to allow refugees to participate in the labor market legally, the legal obstacles for them must be removed. This legal regulation also allows to solve other related problems such social and moral ones.

Because of extended duration of the residence of the refugees, locals’ feeling of help has been decreasing and refugees are exposed to social exclusion more. It results that they experience the feeling of deprivation.

On the one hand, Syrians think that there is an social inequality between themselves and locals in terms of different rights, but on the other hand locals think that it affects the welfare of the society to support refugees financially, who escaped from the war and do not deserve support. Also, the findings of researches which were conducted in this topic indicated that the feeling of anger is intensified on this topic.

Otherwise, locals have mercy on the refugees and support them to satisfy their basic needs. This is very important for refugees to improve their life conditions. However, it is not an effective way to solve their daily and social problems in the long term. In conclusion, the social, economic and security related conflicts between the locals and the refugees are the main dynamics that leads the refugees to be excluded socially. For this reason, quick and effective politics must be developed in order to make their legal, economic and social integration easier.

References