There are approximately one and a half million Syrian refugees currently living in Turkey. Their life is teeming with severe hardships. First, this tragedy starts with an escape. It continues with a survival and finally ends up with an exile. In fact, they are not simply deserting their homelands or houses for a better life option. The underlying reason of this escape is similar to someone being scattered into an unknown in a desperate attempt to save his own life. They become cut off, uprooted from their own lands in order to save themselves from the warfare situation and massive slaughters and to move into a safer place to live.
Syria is turning into a society of refugees. Four fifths of the whole population has already abandoned their country. Turkey is doing its best in hosting these people who entered its soil in a desperate attempt to save their own life. In many cities, temporary accommodation areas have been established. In these places, there are various social complexes, which respond to health, lodging, education and socialization needs. However, these opportunities only meet the needs of a limited number of refugees. According to various researches, the major amount of refugees is living outside the container cities. They are scattered all across the country far from control. Due to the conglomeration of the refugees in the camp near the border, trespassing borders is at a high level. Twenty-five percent of the camp refugees don"t even have a passport and the number reaches 50 percent for those who live outside the camps. Of all these, those who have a work permission comprise only 20 percent.
Sociologist Dr. Ruhat Yasar"s findings in his research, "The perception of the refugees in Kilis" presents remarkable data to us. He draws conclusions on the sociological, economic and identity aspects of the question under discussion. For example, according to the research, 80 percent of the refugees are coming to Turkey for security concerns, whereas 17 percent come for economic reasons. The study concurs that security and peace are the most important goals for refugees. The refugees are torn apart not only by being homeless, but because they are also destitute and at the same time encountering certain problems such as broken families, death, losses of family members or relatives, which causes some other social and psychological disorders.
According to the conducted research in the camp areas, the amount of those who lose at least one of their close relatives is around 40%. Deficiency occurs in psychological and sociological levels, too, as Syrians are disconnected from their settled life style because of warfare and death. They have set themselves apart from certain social relationships through isolation. These facts cause several certain social behavior problems because they render values and norms go unsteady and therefore they become more inclined to commit crimes. Such shocks taking place within personality, identity and social life are leading to various anomalies. Personal, family and group traumas are occurring in this way. This is what I mean by being scattered in their life.
The refugees are settling in empty parks, garages, abandoned places, ruined or collapsed buildings or open areas. These kinds of living areas are neglected, unsafe, dirty and dangerous. There are no restrooms, bathrooms or windows in these buildings. It"s a life of being in exile in areas of expulsion. The refugees co-act and experience the motion together. Instead of being settled in a certain location, they live in constant mobility. This situation makes their life harder and opens the doors to Turkey for new problems. It looks like the escape that began in Syria is continuing in Turkey. The flux and circulation are causing certain disturbances such as ambiguousness: the examples of which are deprivation of education, lack of accommodation, unavailability for regular work opportunities, and an inability for employment.
In addition to the grave problems that Syrian refugees suffer, the host society"s perception is also crucial. For example, refugees who are sleeping in mosques are causing complaints as they loiter and litter the floors due to the deficiency of the infrastructure. In the case of Kilis, sociologist Ruhat Yasar, who conducted an extensive research on refugees, summarizes the relationship between refugees and the locals in such a remarkable way:"The test of Kilis with refugees". Of course, the reverse is possible, too: the test of refugees with Kilis!
In the first place, certain associations, municipalities, communities, NGOs and universities provided various aids to host them as "guests".
Even so, a university added a course with the title "Application of Social Service". At first, the whole town of Kilis was as one man welcoming guests from Syria. We observed that these people with a religious sensitivity opened their houses, yards and neighborhoods to these guests. However, with the lengthening of the war, this optimism and beneficiary spirit vanished. It turned from the mode of "let"s do something" optimism into a "nothing has changed" optimism.
When "the feeling of despair" replaced pessimism, people ceased to help them with their own personal resources. The people of Kilis are experiencing a fatigue of "mercy".
(The perception of refugees in Kilis, Kilis University, 2014, p. 41).
Emigration then became a sort of phenomenon, which transforms from a fact of being a guest into a settler, which affects the social life and gives birth to several anomalies. In these circumstances, when the help begins to cease, the refugee perception deteriorates, and counter-reactions occur. In this framework, the refugees turned into a phenomenon that invokes war, poverty and expulsion. Certain criminal behaviors accompanying irregular ones are driving people into enmity and converting them into the other side.
Refugees are then seen as rivals in employment and business life. As a matter of fact, according to the same research, 67 percent of the inhabitants in Kilis express their dislike for the employment of Syrian refugees, because they employ kids in their workplaces and form a cheap labor force, taking advantage of opportunities with the available employment. This becomes an important reason for the otherization of Syrians in the eyes of the people. However, we should keep in mind that they also have positive contributions to the extent of qualified workers, for the circulation of capital.
There occur certain judgments like the increase of the crime rate, their foreign background and dissimilarities. According to the research, 83 percent of women and 68 percent of men have a negative opinion about Syrians (p.61). Again, 64 percent of the people consider the refugees as incompatible. There are also a "militant type" people who diligently propagate the perception of otherization. These are marginal groups who make statements such as, "These are terrorists, we should drive them out". They are stirring up provocations. These are people who wear masks, hold huge cleavers and are filled with a grudge. They strive to deepen the inter group traumas and hence inflame the sparkles. It"s possible to read the incidents in Maras, Reyhanli and Istanbul''s Ikitelli from this perspective.
Despite the "negative" perception in the settled, social perception, according to the findings, the determined crime rate in 2013 within Kilis, which belongs to Syrians, forms around 15 percent. Masses who go through a scatter, impoverishment and personality shocks indicate in total 16 percent across the town of Kilis. This fact proves how the produced image concerning the perception of the refugees is strong and wrong at the same time. At this point, what is crystal-clear is how certain groups are showing a particular effort in producing propaganda by organizing masses. Anatolia is a land of peace, which opens its borders to emigrants. Spanish Jews, Caucasian Muslim Immigrants and Northern Iraqi Kurds all came to Anatolia as the "guests of God".
Twittter: eharputi
