March 2016

INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH PROJECT ONSYRIAN IMMIGRANTS:

THE EXAMPLE OF KILIS

1

Project Team

Project Manager

Research Consultant

Project Researcher

Research Coordinator

Assistant Coordinator

Research Specialists

2

Data Gathering Process and Method

Data has been obtained from 73 Syrian immigrants by speaking face to face with the help of an Arabic translator in Kilis between the dates of 15 March – 27 March 2016.

3

Kilis: City of Immigrants

The cities that are on the Syrian border of Turkey, which has received massive migration wave, has been affected most from the crisis after Syrian civil war.

The population of Kilis was 81.184 according to the 2011 adress based population registration system, but; the number has increased to 93,266 by the end of the year 2015.

On the other hand, the number of Syrians who settled in the city centre and Öncüpınar and Elbeyli accomodation centers in the city centre has reached 127.000 people ac-cording to the local sources and AFAD(Prime Ministry Di-saster and Emergency Management Presidency).

In Kilis which has a area of 1521 km2, refugees have outnumbered the local people in terms of population den-sity.

Öncüpınar Accomodation Center consists of 2,053 con-tainers and each container has 2 rooms and a toilet with the capacity of a 5-6 member family.

The container city, which has been set as 6 districts, has the capacity of 15.000 people and Elbeyli Accomodation Center consists of 3.600 containers and has the capacity of 20.000 people.

According to the provisional results of the adress based population registration system in 2015, Kilis has a total population of 130.655 people and the city centre has a population of 93.266 people.

4

County Name City Population Ratio % CountryPopulation

Ratio % Total Population Number ofVillages

Number ofDistricts

Merkez 93.266 71 13.027 10 106.293 52 75

Elbeyli 1.868 1 3.984 3 5.852 23 4

Musabeyli 1.236 1 12.123 9 13.359 46 3

Polateli 1.041 1 4.110 3 5.151 16 6

TOTAL 97.411 75 33.244 25 130.655 137 88

Contaıner City: Kilis

According to the AFAD data, by 21 March 2016, the number of Syrians in sheltering centers is 272.439. Thirty three thousand of this number live inthe container cities in Kilis.

December 2015 Kilis Population info of city and counties

5

Demographic Distribution

%52,05Male

%47,95Female

6%

Smallerthan 18

13%

18-22

22%

23-27

8%

28-32

13%

33-37

6%

38-42

3%

43-50

1%

51-60

1%

61-70

1%

71-80

GENDER

AGE

6

High school

EDUCATIONALBACKGROUND

%

41%Undergraduate 21%

Associate degree 12%Primary school 12%

Secondary school 10%Post graduate 4%

41%

21%

12%

12%

10%

4%

Distribution Related to Education

7

32

22

1010

2-4 People 5-6 People 7-9 People 10-13 People

How many people live in the same house?

8

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

100-149$ 150-200$ 300-500$ 600-900$ 1.000$ 2.000$ 3.000$ 10.000$

5

12

5

6

5

2

1 1

0

2

4

6

8

10

50$ 100$ 200-250$ 300-400$ 400-500$ 600-900$ 700$ 2.000$

5

8

10 10

5

6

2

1

How many dollars did you earn monthly in Syria?

How many dollars do you earn monthly in Turkey?

Comparison of monthly incomebetween Syria and Turkey

9

Were you a paid worker in Syria?

Are you a paid worker in Turkey?

64%didn’t work

36%worked

68%not working

32%working

Comparison of Working ConditionsBetween Syria and Turkey

10

11

Housewife

11

Student

2

WeddingSaloon Manager

2

Teacher

2

Owner ofThe Business

17

Cleaner, Waiter ,Mate in Buses, Cafe

3

Cook,hairdresseritechnician

3

Housewife

7

Teacher

2

Bread makeror seller

2

Translator

3

Housewife

Turkey – Syria Occupations

Occupation in Syria

Occupation in Turkey

11

%36,99

%2,74 %2,74

%57,53

Tenant Refugee camp Bought a house,own house

Other

Residence?

12

22

51

Educationopportunities

22

51

Healthopportunities

13

60

Sportopportunities

28

45

Shelteringoppportunities

11

62

PublicTransportation

18

55

Traffic

20

53

Green areas

66

7

Food Prices

67

6

Clothing Prices

54

19

Technologyoppotunities

67

4

Energy Prices(Electricity, Natural gas)

Better in Turkey Better in Syria

Compare Turkey and Syria in relation tofactors below

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Residenceand income

opportunities

Education Security Children’sFuture

DevelopmentLevel

37

16

65

3 2

LanguageLearning

Opportunities

Number of answers

Why do a part of Syrians prefer migrating to Europe by risking their lives instead of staying in Turkey?

13

14

0

5

10

15

20

Money, work Expensive rents Health services Language problem

16

14

10

8

Number of answers

What are the problems of Syrians in Turkey?

15

0

5

10

15

20

25

Jobopportunities

Teaching ofTurkish

Residenceand salary

Health Legal residence

86

24

3

10

Number of answers

What are your suggestions in order to providebetter conditions for Syrians to stay in Turkey?

16

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Another Arabcountry

except Syria

Stayin Turkey

Back tomy country

Europe The USA Other

38

19

47

23

In which country do you think you will be ten years later?

17

Result and Suggestions

Treatment to Syrian immigrant women. Attitute towards using rather than marrying. Informal marriages, co-wives etc. both affect the Turkish social life badly and the bad treatment to Syrian women results in Syrians’ hostile attitudes towards people.

The reason of Turkey being preferred is desperation. People choose Turkey either they haven’t got passport, money or they don’t know what to do.

One of the main complaints is rents.They state that people rent their houses twice as expensive just because they are foreign-ers.This not only affects the Syrians but also Turkish people.For example, some landlords remove their tenants in order to rent their houses to Syrians twice as expensive as Turkish people.Be-cause of high rental prices( average 600 TL in Kilis), some Syri-ans rent the garages or warehouses without toilet or kitchen in need of shelter. For example Syrians rent a warehouse for 175

18

Result and Suggestions

Although Syrians say that education, health, sport, shelter( be-cause of war), transport, traffic and green areas opportunities in Turkey are better than Syria; they also say that food prices, clothing prices, energy prices and technology opportunities are worse than Syria.

Syrians who say that not knowing Turkish is a problem, also say that Turkish courses are unable to meet the demands and inca-pable.

Syrians say that it is necessary to give them Turkish citizenship, provide work and income and control the rent prices. Also, they want the marriage with Turkish people to be eased.

Turkey must urgently enhance the camp conditions, and pre-vent the bad treatment to Syrian people, especially to women.

19

Result and Suggestions

Turkey should be a pioneer to permanent peace which will enable Syrians to return their countries in medium and long term and produce policies with regard to this situation. Turkey change its foreign policy quite the opposite urgently. There is an urgent need to provide friendship with Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Libya and Iran.Actually, Turkey must apply the prescription of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk: Peace at Home, Peace in The World.

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