Ankara: A new survey published by Turkey’s Social Democracy Foundation, known as SODEV, shows increasing negative sentiments towards Syrian refugees in Turkey.
Turkey, home to 3.7 million registered refugees from war-torn Syria, the world’s largest refugee population, has seen tensions between locals and Syrians in recent months, driven mostly by domestic politics and economic difficulties.
According to the SODEV survey, 66 percent of respondents believed Syrians should return to their homeland, with the sentiment high among voters of opposition parties.
More than half of those voters prefer the repatriation of Syrians, a rate of around 42 percent among voters of the ruling Justice and Development Party.
Turkish respondents broadly described the Syrian people negatively, with 45 percent thinking Syrian refugees are dangerous people who could face challenges in the future.
Forty-one percent of respondents perceived them as a burden on society, and more than 70 percent of respondents said they were not “clean, trustworthy and polite”, while 57 percent believed Syrians are not hardworking.
Across the country, 55 percent preferred not to have Syrian neighbors, and nearly 65 percent said they would not marry, or allow their children to marry a Syrian.
Half of the respondents said they would be upset if Syrians went to the same school with their children, with 70 percent saying they only communicate with Syrians when they are obliged.
However, half of the respondents said they did not face any tangible problems with Syrians in their daily lives, and 77 percent said Syrian refugees had not harmed them in the past five years.
Omar Kadkoy, a migration policy analyst at Ankara-based think tank TEPAV, told Arab News: “Over the past 11 years, and especially after 2016, the (Turkish) government has embarked on a strategy to inspire and protect social cohesion. Preferred project-based activities. Integration.”
According to Kadkoy, most Syrians and Turks live in parallel worlds, and populist politicians take advantage of this gap and amplify it with misinformation and hate speech.
The survey also sheds light on public perception of financial aid being provided to the refugee community in Turkey.
Half of the respondents believe that the Turkish state should only provide humanitarian aid to Syrians in urgent need, while 70 percent believe that Turkey has already helped Syrians more than enough.
With the debit card practice implemented over the past six years, the EU supports a third of the vulnerable refugee population in Turkey to meet their basic needs every month.
So far, Brussels has disbursed more than 4 billion ($4.579 billion) to NGOs and international aid groups working to improve the refugee situation in Turkey.
Last year, the EU contributed an additional 3 billion to be used in refugee-focused projects by 2023.
Turkey has spent more than 40 billion on refugees, after repeatedly calling on the EU to share the burden.
However, it has not been just a story of deprivation; Syrians have established more than 10,000 companies in Turkey, some with information provided by projects funded by the European Union.
The companies are mostly active in the wholesale, real estate, hospitality, construction and manufacturing sectors.
While these initiatives help them sustain and avoid being dependent on state aid, 67 percent of respondents oppose the opening of Syrian businesses in Turkey, claiming that these companies do not pay taxes or trigger more unemployment in Turkey. does not.
“This is largely driven by the refusal (accepting) of Syrians as members of the overall community,” Kadkoy said.
“Although there are informal businesses and those who run[them]are both Turks and Syrians, there are about 10,000 companies registered with Turkish chambers whose owners invested 2.1 billion lira ($154 million) to set up companies across Turkey. and they have created inclusive employment opportunities,” he said.
However, nearly half of respondents said they would avoid buying from a Syrian company; 82 percent of Turks think that Syrians do not contribute to Turkey’s economy, and 85 percent say they do not add to Turkey’s social fabric. Eighty percent think it will be impossible to live in peace with the Syrian people.
Respondents expect crime rates to rise, internal conflicts to intensify, that the economy will weaken, and moral values will suffer if Syrians stay in Turkey longer.
SODEV President Ayrton Aksoy said the Turks see the growing number of Syrian companies as a sign of stability.
“They regard the presence of the Syrian people as a moral obligation, and accept humanitarian aid as long as they need it and in a limited way,” he told Arab News.
According to Aksoy, the ongoing prejudice against Syrian refugees is primarily driven by the declining purchasing power among Turkish citizens due to the high inflation rate.
“As long as people struggle to earn a living, they start treating refugees as scapegoats (for) their daily economic problems,” he said.
“Moreover, the influx of Afghan refugees following the Taliban takeover added to the social frustration,” Aksoy said.
“Instead of using the refugee card for domestic consumption and converting it to vote potential, opposition parties these days are mainly using a responsible rhetoric apart from some broken figures.”
Experts also note that Turks of lower socio-economic status are more tolerant of Syrian refugees, although they have to share the job market with them.
“However, those who benefit from the cheap labor of refugees, for example factory owners, take a critical stance … when we survey them,” Aksoy said.
Meanwhile, Turkish authorities recently found the bodies of 12 migrants who were killed near Greece, accusing Greek guards of sending them back across the border without shoes and clothing – alleging tragedy which were dismissed by Athens as “false propaganda”.
Turkey repatriated 2,300 Syrians from the Greek islands as part of the readmission agreement, according to official figures on the readmission of migrants.
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