Investigating Turkish university students’ attitudes towards refugees in a time of Civil War in neighboring Syria

Abstract

Thousands of refugees have immigrated to Turkey because of the current Civil War in neighboring Syria. This is causing tensions between refugees and locals. These increasingly negative attitudes towards the incoming victims of conflict are of particular interest. The present study, therefore, aimed at determining the premises of the emergence of such negative attitudes. The research sample consisted of university students who all studied at various faculties at Cumhuriyet University in the Turkish province of Sivas. Data were collected by the Attitude Scale Towards Refugees, the Patriotism Attitude Scale, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, and the Cirhinlioğlu Religiosity Scale. Data were analyzed by Independent Sample t-tests as well as using Stepwise Regression Analyses. Results showed that the feeling of empathy correlated negatively with negative attitudes towards refugees, while blind patriotism, religiosity, and having nationalist/conservative orientations, correlated positively. Men were found to be more negative than women. The feeling of empathy was the most prominent factor in predicting the nature of attitudes towards refugees. Religious doctrine and distancing oneself from conservative and patriotic perspectives appeared to be effective in potentially preventing the development of negative attitudes. In conclusion, research results are discussed in the light of relevant literature.

Attitudes, Social Acceptance, and Rejection towards Refugee Students: The Case of Düzce Province, Turkey

“…Syrian students state that the social distance between them and their peers is too high (Erdogan, 2020). It can be said that factors in the failure to ensure social acceptance for refugee students, such as language and communication-related problems (Dromgold-Sermen, 2020), cultural differences of refugee students (Aktas et al, 2018), negative attitudes (Jones et al, 2016;Koc & Anderson, 2018;Yitmen & Verkuyten, 2018), negative publications in the media against refugees (Bešić et al, 2020;Wolling & Arlt, 2016), perceptions that they are an economic burden to the country (Esses et al, 2013;Narlı & Ozascılar, 2019;Yitmen & Verkuyten, 2018), pressures to abandon a cultural identity (Berry & Sabatier, 2010) and adaptation problems (Fazel et al, 2016;Fazel, 2018), which occur with the prolongation of the refugees' stay, are effective.…”

Displacement and Return in the Internet Era: How Social Media Captures Migration Decisions in Northern Syria

“…The Syrian civil war, raging for almost a decade, has led to some of the largest population displacement of our times. Host nations, even those that had followed an open-border policy (such as Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon), have seen their citizens become wary if not outright hostile toward refugees (Kirişci (2014), Nielsen (2016), Aktas et al (2018), Getmansky et al (2018), Yahya et al (2018)). The European Union is militantly protecting its borders against new migrant flows and Turkey has announced the projected return of over one million Syrian refugees in a 20-mile-deep safe zone in northern Syria that includes the areas of Idlib, Tel Abyad, and Azaz (Hoffman and Makovsky (2021), Gall (2019)).…”

Cultural Literacy in Mother Tongue Education: an Action Research

“…This situation has made multicultural educational environment in Turkey; but at the same time this new situation has brought many problems. For example, immigrant students are not accepted by Turkish students due to cultural differences (Aktaş, Tepe, & Persson, 2018;Güven & İşleyen, 2018). Thus, these adverse conditions can create a negative classroom environment for both Turkish students, immigrants and teachers.…”