Solidarity with Syrian Immigrants with the Power of Islamic Beliefs and Volunteerism
Solidarity with Syrian Immigrants with the Power of Islamic Beliefs and Volunteerism

Author(s): Emel Topçu, Sevgi Kurtulmuş
Subject(s): Geography, Regional studies, Civil Society, Islam studies, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Present Times (2010 - today), Migration Studies, Ethnic Minorities Studies
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: Turkey; migration; Syrian immigrants; Islamic beliefs; solidarity;
Summary/Abstract: Nowadays, 2,733,784 refugee Syrian people are legally registered in Turkey. They constitute 2.7 % of Turkish population. During last 4 years, Turkey has received a mass amount of migrant without being properly prepared. 1.5 million of the Syrians live in the cities which are close to the border. For example, in one city like Kilis, the number of the Syrian refugee is more then the inhabitants of the city. During the five years of Syrian war, Kilis, a town of 90,000 inhabitants, located on the Syrian border has welcomed 120,000 Syrians who are fleeing from war since 2011. How come in such a short time can one town absorbs more then its population peacefully? This question has encouraged us for our study. There are so many organisations and persons in Turkey working to help Syrians; so, we have also joined to one of these voluntary group which is initiated by a female teacher, Nezahat Albay, in Ankara. By this group we have perfomed participary observation which guided us to formulate our research questions. We did not have any theory or any hypothesis but we had our curiosity to find out why, how, where the volunteers work with Syrians. We let the field to formulate its own story.

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