Non-state actors and education as a humanitarian response: role of faith-based organizations in education for Syrian refugees in Turkey

Abstract

In the shadow of the Syrian conflict generating millions of displaced people, education provision for Syrian children has become one of the biggest challenges for Turkey. This paper sheds light on the role and rationale of faith-based humanitarian organizations in education provision for Syrian children in Turkey based on the interviews conducted with representatives of humanitarian organizations. The paper presents the wider socio-political context of Turkey to analyze the motivations of the Islamic humanitarian sector in exercising education facilities for a linguistically and culturally different population. In that context, this paper attempts to contribute to the fledgling literature on education as a humanitarian response from an institutional perspective.

Faith Actors and the Global Compact on Refugees: A Local Role, a Global Norm?

“…For the other four case countries-Turkey, Canada, Bangladesh, and Jordan-the role of faith actors in refugee protection has been documented (Aslıhan Tezel Mccarthy 2017;Barbour, Fan, and Lewa 2021;Bompani 2015;Fiddan-Qasmiyeh 2020;Mencütek 2020;Mulholland 2017), and their role was mentioned in some of the interviews, officials did not highlight faith actors in any further way to draw conclusions about how the GCR was impacting the partnership and thus the role of faith actors, which could potentially lead to the standardization (isomorphism) of their role at a global scale. In the case of Canada, for example, while it is documented that in fact faith actors play a prominent role in Canada's private sponsorship program (Cameron 2021), beyond being mentioned, interviewees in Canada did not specifically expand on the role of faith actors in the framework of the GCR, mainly because the GCR was addressed as general guidelines for action and much of that action was already in place before the GCR was approved.…”

Educational inequality in the Kebribeyah Somali refugee camp in Ethiopia: an autoethnography

“…Unfortunately, educational equality between host communities and the incoming refugees has not been a priority since education is grossly underfunded globally (MacKinnon 2014). Until recently, the provision of education as humanitarian assistance remained understudied to a greater extent (Mccarthy 2017).…”

Welcoming immigrants in Istanbul: Gendering faith-based and professionalised hospitality

“…The development of faith-based organisations in Turkey, their role in changing migration politics, the social policies of the state, and their proximity to the governing Justice and Development party have been extensively examined (Atalay, 2019; Göçmen, 2014). However, research on faith-based organisations’ involvement in refugee protection has emerged only more recently (Danış and Nazlı, 2018; Tezel-McCarthy, 2017), and more research is needed to develop a robust contextual framework.…”