Integrating Bottom‐up into Top‐down: The Role of Local Actors in Labour Market Integration of Syrian Refugees in Turkey

Abstract

As Turkey has become one of the leading receiving countries for asylum seekers and refugees, not only new legislative initiatives regarding the legal status of Syrians, but also immigration policies have moved to the forefront of Turkey's agenda. In parallel with recent developments, the new Regulation on Work Permits for People under Temporary Protection was enacted in 2016. Among the 3,5 million, almost half of Syrian refugees residing in Turkey are of working age population, yet the majority have been engaged in the informal labour market. We know little about how this permit to work takes effect at the local level. Drawing on structured interviews with local actors in Adana, this article shows that the absence of an integration policy drives local actors to engage in the formulation of their own integration approach, what I call "integration work", which results in varying degrees of collaboration within the same province.

Increasing the Social Integration of Syrian Refugees in Turkey through Vocational Education and Training

“…For this reason, these projects include supports to facilitate employment after training. Therefore, these new projects have potential for Syrian refugees' access to formal labor market easier through VET (İçduygu & Diker, 2017;Siviş, 2020;Şimşek, 2019). Although Germany advanced more on labor market integration of Syrian refugees' through its famous dual VET system (OECD, 2017;Tanrıkulu, 2020), Turkey now initiates to use that instrument by these new projects.…”

“…These projects are critical for increasing the secondary school enrollment rates of the Syrian refugees who have been gradually integrated into the Turkish education system since 2014, as well as for bolstering their employment opportunities through the training and networking provided by VET (Özer, 2021a). They are also of great importance to decrease informal participation in labor market, which constitutes a challenging issue (İçduygu & Diker, 2017;Siviş, 2020). Therefore, this study aims to introduce and examine the projects carried out through Turkish VET to ensure the integration of Syrian refugees with formal labor market, and to evaluate the current situation and the plans made in line with international criteria: informing immigrants about the opportunities of VET, ensuring that refugees are prepared for VET, facilitating the transition of immigrants to VET, and supporting refugees during VET.…”

A Promising Opportunity for the Integration of Syrian Refugees in Turkey: New Targets in Accessing the Labor Market through Vocational Education and Training

“…On the other hand, active participation of local authorities in this process will be ensured through the participation of chambers of industry and commerce, local administrators and stakeholders in the selected provinces. There are successful examples of VET, especially in the provinces where Syrian refugees are highly concentrated, in cooperation with sector representatives and local actors (Siviş, 2020). These local experiences also highlight the potential of new projects of the MoNE for the refugees.…”

“…Therefore, VET leads to an important opportunity for social integration for immigrants who do not attend the advanced levels of education. A major problem of migrants who are outside the school age population is that they are obliged to work informally in the labor market (Del Carpio & Wagner, 2015;Siviş, 2020). In this case, they mostly work in inadequate conditions with low wages and without health insurance, and these lead to social disharmony.…”

“…Although immigrants' access to VET is resisted by employers in most countries in Europe (Aerne & Bonoli, 2021), local authorities and sector representatives in Turkey are willing for their participation in the labor market (Siviş, 2020) and this increases the feasibility and possible achievement of the projects. Making new arrangements in VTC programs in a way that would promote refugees to improve their Turkish language skills shows how seriously the MoNE approaches the problem.…”