Crisis or Opportunity? Public Debate and Perception on Syrian Refugees in Turkey
Crisis or Opportunity? Public Debate and Perception on Syrian Refugees in Turkey

Author(s): Oğuzhan Ömer Demir
Subject(s): Geography, Regional studies, Military history, Evaluation research, Present Times (2010 - today), Migration Studies, Ethnic Minorities Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: Turkey; Syria; migration; refugees; public debate; crisis; opportunity; civil war;
Summary/Abstract: Since 2011, millions of Syrian refugees have left their countries due to ongoing civil war in Syria. Almost three million of them are now a part of Turkish community. Despite several problems affecting culture, economy, and security, Syrian refugees and Turkish people have achieved to live together without any significant social crisis and moral panic. Düvell (2013) argues that unlike Western countries, where it would create a moral panic, Turkey surprisingly showed a social acceptance towards huge number of refugees. In fact, the number of refugees in Turkey enormously increased in the last few years. The rate of Syrians was only 0.02% in 2012, while it increased to 0.29% in 2013, and 1.96% in 2014. In 2015, the rate sharply doubled (Table-1). This unusual change in Turkey’s foreign population is the one that has never been experienced in Turkey.

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