Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-8v9h9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-04-10T18:52:38.185Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

How Turkey has governed Syrian refugees over a decade: a three-tiered class analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2025

Cenk Saraçoğlu*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Communication, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
Danièle Bélanger
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Laval University, Laval, Quebec, Canada
*
Corresponding author: Cenk Saraçoğlu; Email: cenksaracoglu@gmail.com

Abstract

Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'

Information

Type
Commentary
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of New Perspectives on Turkey

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Acara, E and Özdemir, S (2023) Spaces of social reproduction, mobility, and the Syrian refugee care crisis in Izmir, Turkey. Urban Geography 44(9), 18921910.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adar, (2018) Türkiye’de yeni prekarya Suriyeli işgücü mü? Çalışma ve Toplum 1(56), 13–36.Google Scholar
Ağlargöz, O and Yardımcı, Ş (2019) Uluslararası düzensiz göç ve çalışma hayatı: Şanlıurfa ilindeki Suriyeli göçmenlerin durumu. Eskişehir Osmangazi Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Dergisi 14(2), 535558.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Akar, S and Erdoğdu, MM (2019) Syrian refugees in Turkey and integration problem ahead. Journal of International Migration and Integration 20, 925940.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Akbaş, S and Ulutaş, ÇÜ (2018) Küresel fabrika kentinin görünmeyen işçileri: Denizli işgücü piyasasında Suriyeli göçmenler. Çalışma ve Toplum 1(56), 167192.Google Scholar
Akçalı, E and Görmüş, E (2021) Business people in war times, the “fluid capital” and the “shy diaspora”: the case of Syrians in Turkey. Journal of Refugee Studies 34(3), 28912911.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Akpınar, T (2020) Sermayenin Yeni Hafif Piyadeleri. İstanbul: Kor Kitap Yayınevi.Google Scholar
Aytaç, Ö and Kılınç, P (2021) Emek sömürüsünün yeni yüzü: Suriyeli çocuk işçiler. Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi 31(1), 381404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Badalič, V (2023) Trapped in the underground economy: Syrian refugees in the informal labour market in Turkey. Third World Quarterly 44(5), 967984.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balkan, B and Tumen, S (2016) Immigration and prices: quasi-experimental evidence from Syrian refugees in Turkey. Journal of Population Economics 29, 657686.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Battistoni, A (2024) Ideology at work? Rethinking reproduction. American Political Science Review, 1–14. Available at https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055424000868 (accessed 3 June 2025).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bauder, H (2006) Labor Movement: How Migration Regulates Labor Markets. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bélanger, D, Ouellet, M, and Saraçoğlu, C (2021) Syrian trajectories of exile in Lebanon and Turkey: context of reception and social class. Population, Space and Place 27(5), e2474.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bélanger, D and Saracoglu, C (2020) The governance of Syrian refugees in Turkey: the state–capital nexus and its discontents. Mediterranean Politics 25(4), 413432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bélanger, D and Saraçoğlu, C (2022) Processes of wage theft: the neoliberal labor market and Syrian refugees in Turkey. In Balkan, E and Kutlu-Tonak, Z (eds), Refugees on the Move: Crisis and Response in Turkey and Europe. New York: Berghan Books, 262280 Google Scholar
Berman A (2022) Haslanger, Marx, and the social ontology of unitary theory: debating capitalism’s relationship to race and gender. Journal of Social Ontology 8(1), 118150.Google Scholar
Bertoli, S, Ozden, C, and Packard, M (2021) Segregation and internal mobility of Syrian refugees in Turkey: evidence from mobile phone data. Journal of Development Economics 152, 102704.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bozdağ, Ç (2020) Bottom-up nationalism and discrimination on social media: an analysis of the citizenship debate about refugees in Turkey. European Journal of Cultural Studies 23(5), 712730.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canefe, N (2018) Invisible lives: gender, dispossession, and precarity amongst Syrian refugee women in the Middle East. Refuge 34(1), 3949.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caro, LP (2020) Syrian refugees in the Turkish labour market: a socio-economic analysis. Sosyoekonomi 28(46), 5174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Celikates, R (2006) From critical social theory to a social theory of critique: on the critique of ideology after the pragmatic turn. Constellations 13(1), 2140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cetinoglu, T and Yilmaz, V (2021) A contextual policy analysis of a cash programme in a humanitarian setting: the case of the Emergency Social Safety Net in Turkey. Disasters 45(3), 604626.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Çelik, AB (2005) “I miss my village!”: forced Kurdish migrants in İstanbul and their representation in associations. New Perspectives on Turkey 32, 137163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Çınar, S (2018) İnşaat işgücü piyasasında yeni aktörler ve yeni çatışmalar: Türkiyeli işçilerin gözünden Suriyeli inşaat işçileri. Çalışma ve Toplum 1(56), 121138.Google Scholar
Çoban, B (2018) Türkiye’de işsizlik profili bağlamında Suriyeli gençlerin İstanbul işgücü piyasasına katılım sorunları. Çalışma ve Toplum 1(56), 193216.Google Scholar
Danış, D (2016) Konfeksiyon Sektöründe Küresel Bağlantilar: Göçmen Işçiler, Sendikalar Ve Küresel Çalişma Örgütleri. Alternatif Politika 8(3), 562586.Google Scholar
Danış, D and Nazlı, D (2019) A faithful alliance between the civil society and the state: actors and mechanisms of accommodating Syrian refugees in Istanbul. International Migration 57(2), 143157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dayıoğlu, M, Kırdar, MG, and Koç, İ (2024) The making of a “lost generation”: child labor among Syrian refugees in Turkey. International Migration Review 58(3), 10751113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Andrade, GS (2020) Beyond vulnerability: Syrian refugees in urban spaces in Turkey. International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy 9(3), 3446.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Certeau, M (1984) The Practice of Everyday Life, Rendall S (trans). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
De Genova, NP (2002) Migrant “illegality” and deportability in everyday life. Annual Review of Anthropology 31(1), 419447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dedeoğlu, S (2018) Tarımsal üretimde göçmen işçiler: Yoksulluk nöbetinden yoksulların rekabetine. Çalışma ve Toplum 1(56), 3768.Google Scholar
Dedeoğlu, S (2024) Harvesting precarity: the regimes governing migrant labor in Türkiye’s agricultural sector. Asia and Pacific Migration Journal 32(4), 704724.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demirci, M and Kirdar, MG (2021) The labor market integration of Syrian refugees in Turkey. CreAM Discussion Paper 38/21. 145.Google Scholar
Demirci, M and Kırdar, MG (2023) The labor market integration of Syrian refugees in Turkey. World Development 162, 106138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Droz-Vincent, P (2020) The renewed “struggle for Syria”: from the war “in” Syria to the war “over” Syria. The International Spectator 55(3), 115131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erdal, İÖY (2019) Türkiye’de kayıt dışı istihdam ve kayıt dışı istihdamla mücadele politikaları. Ufuk Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi 8(16), 225246.Google Scholar
Erdoğan, MM (2022) Syrians Barometer 2021: a framework for achieving social cohesion with Syrians in Türkiye. Available at https://www.unhcr.org/tr/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2022/12/SB-2021-English-01122022.pdf (accessed 10 May 2024).Google Scholar
Erdogan-Ozturk, Y and Isik-Guler, H (2020) Discourses of exclusion on Twitter in the Turkish context: #ülkemdesuriyeliistemiyorum (#idontwantsyriansinmycountry). Discourse, Context & Media 36, 100400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erdoğdu, S (2018) Syrian refugees in Turkey and trade union responses. Globalizations 15(6), 838853.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foucault, M (1982) The subject and power. Critical Inquiry 8(4), 777795.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fraser, N and Jaeggi, R (2018) Capitalism. A Conversation in Critical Theory. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Geuss, R (1981) The Idea of a Critical Theory: Habermas and the Frankfurt School. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gill, N (2010) New state-theoretic approaches to asylum and refugee geographies. Progress in Human Geography 34(5), 626645.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, C (1991) Governmental rationality: an introduction. In Burchell, G, Gordon, C, and Miller, P (eds), The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 153.Google Scholar
Güven, S, Kenanoğlu, M, Kadkoy, O, and Kurt, T (2018) Syrian Entrepreneurship and Refugee Start-Ups in Turkey: Leveraging the Turkish Experience 2018. Ankara: TEPAV.Google Scholar
Hanieh, A (2010) Temporary migrant labour and the spatial structuring of class in the Gulf Cooperation Council. Spectrum: Journal of Global Studies 2(1), 6788.Google Scholar
Hanieh, A (2022) Migration, borders, and capital accumulation. In Richie, G, Carpenter, S, and Saharzshad, M (eds), Marxism and Migration. Cham: Palgrave and McMillan, 3556.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, D (1981) The spatial fix – Hegel, von Thunen, and Marx. Antipode 13(3), 112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, D (2002) Spaces of Capital: Towards a Critical Geography. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haslanger, S (2017) Racism, ideology, and social movements. Res Philosophica 94(1), 122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
İçduygu, A and Osseiran, S (2024) Syrian refugees in urban Turkey between migration policies and realities. In Knusden, J and Tobin, S (eds), Urban Displacement: Syria’s Refugees in the Middle East. New York: Berghan Books, 167189.Google Scholar
Ilcan, S, Rygiel, K, and Baban, F (2018) The ambiguous architecture of precarity: temporary protection, everyday living and migrant journeys of Syrian refugees. International Journal of Migration and Border Studies 4(1–2), 5170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaeggi, R (2009) Rethinking ideology. In de Bruin, B and Zurn, CF (eds), New Waves in Political Philosophy. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 6386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karadağ, S (2023) Göçmenden yurttaşa: “Kullan-At” emeğin yaygınlaşması. In Yükseker, D, Kerestecioğlu, İÖ, and Taşğın, (eds), Çoklu Krizler Çağında Yoksulluk: Sosyal Politika ve Sosyal Hizmete Eleştirel Yaklaşımlar. Ankara: Nika, 179201.Google Scholar
Karadağ, S and Sert, (2023) (Non-) deport to discipline: the daily life of Afghans in Turkey. Journal of Refugee Studies 36(3), 449466.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kavak, S (2016) Syrian refugees in seasonal agricultural work: a case of adverse incorporation in Turkey. New Perspectives on Turkey 54, 3353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keysan, and Şentürk, B (2021) Philanthropists, professionals and feminists: refugee NGOs and the empowerment of Syrian women in Gaziantep, Turkey. International Migration 59(1), 143164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kızılelmas, F (2023) Labor exploitation, discrimination and coping tactics of male forced migrants in Türkiye. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 32(4), 725748.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larrain, J (1979) The Concept of Ideology. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.Google Scholar
Lippert, R (1999) Governing refugees: the relevance of governmentality to understanding the international refugee regime. Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 24(3), 295328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lordoğlu, K and Aslan, M (2016) En fazla Suriyeli göçmen alan beş kentin emek piyasalarında değişimi: 2011–2014. Çalışma ve Toplum 2(49), 789808.Google Scholar
Mackreath, H and Sağnıç, ŞG (2017) Civil society and Syrian refugees in Turkey. Citizens’ Assembly – Turkey. Available at https://hyd.org.tr/en/works/refugees-and-solidarity/215-civil-society-and-syrian-refugees-in-turkey (accessed 19 January 2024).Google Scholar
Miller, P and Rose, N (1990) Governing economic life. Economy and Society 19(1), 131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muftuler-Bac, M (2022) Externalization of migration governance, Turkey’s migration regime, and the protection of the European Union’s external borders. Turkish Studies 23(2), 290316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mutlu, P, Mısırlı, KY, Kahveci, M, Akyol, AE, Erol, E, Gümüşcan, İ, Pınar, E, and Salman, C (2018) Suriyeli göçmen işçilerin İstanbul ölçeğinde tekstil sektörü emek piyasasına eklemlenmeleri ve etkileri. Çalışma ve Toplum 1(56), 6992.Google Scholar
Nimer, M and Rottmann, SB (2022) Logistification and hyper-precarity at the intersection of migration and pandemic governance: Refugees in the Turkish labour market. Journal of Refugee Studies 35(1), 122138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ozduzen, O, Korkut, U, and Ozduzen, C (2021) “Refugees are not welcome”: digital racism, online place-making and the evolving categorization of Syrians in Turkey. New Media & Society 23(11), 33493369 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Özçetin, B and Emre, (2024) International migration and the NGOs working in the field of migration in Turkey. International Migration 62(1), 269284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pelek, D (2019) Syrian refugees as seasonal migrant workers: re-construction of unequal power relations in Turkish agriculture. Journal of Refugee Studies 32(4), 605629.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raiter, A (1999) Discourse formations and ideological reproduction: the concept of dominant discourse. Rethinking Marxism 11(1), 8798.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ritchie, G, Carpenter, S, and Mojab, S (2022) As migrants move: (re)formation of class and class struggle. In Ritchie, G, Carpenter, S, and Mojab, S (eds), Marxism and Migration. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sankaran, K (2020) What’s new in the new ideology critique? Philosophical Studies 177, 14411462.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saraçoğlu, C and Bélanger, D (2019a) Loss and xenophobia in the city: contextualizing anti-Syrian sentiments in Izmir, Turkey. Patterns of Prejudice 53(4), 363383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saraçoğlu, C and Bélanger, D (2019b) The Syrian refugees and temporary protection regime in Turkey: a spatial fix for Turkish capital. In Yılmaz, G, Karatepe, İD, and Tören, T (eds), Integration through Exploitation: Syrians in Turkey. Munich: Rainer Hammp Verlag, 96109.Google Scholar
Saraçoğlu, C and Bélanger, D (2021) Governance through discipline in the neighbourhood: Syrian refugees and Turkish citizens in urban life. Canadian Geographies/Géographies Canadiennes 65(4), 463475.Google Scholar
Scott, S (2013) Labour, migration and the spatial fix: evidence from the UK food industry. Antipode 45(5), 10901109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Secen, S, Al, S, and Arslan, B (2024) Electoral dynamics, new nationalisms, and party positions on Syrian refugees in Turkey. Turkish Studies 25(3), 419449.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sengul, I (2022) Syrian refugees’ homemaking in Gaziantep: uncertainty, legality and temporality. Refugee Survey Quarterly 41(2), 267297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharma, NR (2000) Race, class, gender and the making of difference: the social organization of “migrant workers” in Canada. Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture & Social Justice 24(2), 515.Google Scholar
Shelby, T (2003) Ideology, racism, and critical social theory. The Philosophical Forum 34(2), 153188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siviş, S (2021) Negotiating moral boundaries through the lens of employers: Syrians in the Turkish informal economy. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 47(13), 29973014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Şenses, N (2016) Rethinking migration in the context of precarity: the case of Turkey. Critical Sociology 42(7–8), 975987.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Şimşek, D (2021) “Winners and losers of neoliberalism”: the intersection of class and race in the case of Syrian refugees in Turkey. Ethnic and Racial Studies 44(15), 28162835.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanrıkulu, F (2021) The political economy of migration and integration: effects of immigrants on the economy in Turkey. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies 19(4), 364377.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, JB (1990) Ideology and Modern Culture: Critical Social Theory in the Era of Mass Communication. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Türk, HB (2024) Populist nationalism and anti-refugee sentiment in Turkey: the case of the Victory Party. Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 30(2), 271295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vogel, L (2013) Marxism and the Oppression of Women: Towards a Unitary Theory. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walters, W and Tazzioli, M (2023) Introduction to the handbook on governmentality. In Walters, W and Tazzioli, M (eds), Handbook on Governmentality. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, EO (2010) Envisioning Real Utopias. London: Verso Books.Google Scholar
Yalçın, S (2016) Syrian child workers in Turkey. Turkish Policy Quarterly 15(3), 8998.Google Scholar
Yalim, AC and Critelli, F (2023) Gender roles among Syrian refugees in resettlement contexts: revisiting empowerment of refugee women and needs of refugee men. Women’s Studies International Forum 96(January–February), 102670.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yılmaz, AK (2020) Labour market impact of Syrian refugees in Turkey: the view of employers in informal textile sector in Istanbul. Migration Letters 17(5), 583595.Google Scholar
Yılmaz, B (2008) Entrapped in multidimensional exclusion: the perpetuation of poverty among conflict-induced migrants in an İstanbul neighborhood. New Perspectives on Turkey 38, 205234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yükseker, D and Çeler, Z (2024) Migrant integration in Turkey: travels of a concept across borders and domains of knowledge production. Migration Studies, mnae009. Available at https://doi.org/10.1093/migration/mnae009 (accessed 3 June 2025).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yükseker, D, Kurtuluş, H, Tekin, U, and Erdoğan, EK (2023) Life in Migrant Neighbourhoods: Post-2010 Migration in Tırkey and the Social Participation of Migrants. İstanbul: Heinrich Böll Stiftung. Available at https://tr.boell.org/sites/default/files/2023-12/gocmenyasamirapor_eng_04.12.23_web.pdf (accessed 2 June 2025).Google Scholar