The local turn in migrant practices in Turkey: Syrians in Bursa

Abstract

Turkey has been exposed to the entry of thousands of Syrian refugees since April 2011. On 3 March 2022 there were 3,747,734 Syrians under temporary protection in Turkey. 2 Syrians lack permanent legal residence status and political or citizenship rights, and most have only insecure irregular employment. Temporary protection regulation 3 blocks Syrians' path to citizenship and access to individual international protection. The Turkish government therefore grants citizenship to Syrians under temporary protection through 'exceptional citizenship'. Some Syrians are naturalized under the article of exceptional citizenship of the Turkish Citizenship Law introduced in 2009. According to Article 12 (exceptions in acquiring Turkish citizenship) of this Law (Law No. 5901) 'those persons who bring into Turkey industrial facilities or have rendered or are believed to render an outstanding service in the social or economic arena or in the fields of science, technology, sports, culture or arts' can acquire citizenship. 4 Since 31 January 2021 Turkey has issued citizenship to around 193,000 Syrians. 5 Syrians are also gradually becoming the targets of increasing hostility from the majority society in Turkey, because socio-political polarization has become widespread since the failed military coup in July 2016. Another essential source of growing hostility to Syrians in Turkey is the deepening of the economic crisis, which makes scapegoats of refugees, who are blamed for high unemployment and rising prices. Yet Turkey is not just a stop on the way to Europe for many Syrian refugees but is instead a place where many wish to stay if conditions allow (Kaya and Kiraç 2016; Rottmann and Kaya 2020).Despite its shortcomings in the economic and political integration of migrants and its anti-discrimination laws, Turkey has recently performed relatively well in other areas of the integration of Syrian migrants under temporary protection. The 2020 MIPEX (Migration Integration Policy Index) results demonstrate that Turkey performed well between 2015 and 2020 in the inte-