Toplumsal İlişkiler ve Göç Politikaları Bağlamında Sosyo-Kültürel Entegrasyon: Ankara’daki Suriyeli Mülteciler Örneği

Abstract

This research traces the concept of socio-cultural integration in theory and practice in the context of the social relations of Syrian refugees and local community members in Ankara, and migration history and policies in Turkey. Migration management has reached a dimension that will affect more and more people, as Turkey has become an important immigration country as a result of mass migration movements experienced in recent years. Integration policies, one of the most important parts of migration management, are a process that directly affects both refugee communities and the host society in the context of necessitating a multi-dimensional and multi-actor perspective. In this context, the aim of the research is to discuss the dimensions affecting the socio-cultural integration experience in the context of the social relations of Syrian refugees and local community members and to develop suggestions that can prevent the conflict dimension in intergroup relations. In this research, an analysis that excludes one of the economic, political, social and cultural dimensions of integration has not been made. Conscious of the relative autonomy of social realities, an analysis has been made that accepts the immanence of all dimensions, but places more socio-cultural integration issues in front of the projection. In the research using qualitative research method, in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 Syrian refugees living in Altındağ and Mamak districts of Ankara and 21 local community members living in Altındağ, Mamak, Ümitköy districts. In the context of qualitative data, the perceptions and expectations of refugees and local community members within the framework of their socio-cultural integration experiences were analyzed in seven categories. Qualitative data were analyzed in the categories of self-identity, similarities, differences, social relations, cultural relations, sense of belonging and exclusion experiences and various sub-categories. As a result, it has been understood that the construction of the "us" subject against the "other" subject, which has an important continuity in Turkey, affects the members of the local society. However, it has been concluded that daily life relations, which have unique mechanisms beyond the determinism of structural conditions and develop on a complex plane, directly affect the socio-cultural integration experience of Syrian refugees in Ankara. It has been concluded that the sense of belonging to Turkey of Syrian refugees in Ankara is not yet at the desired level within the framework of the uncertainty conditions created by the "temporary" approach in migration management, the fact that the social and cultural contact between groups is mostly under compulsory conditions, and the exclusion experienced by refugees in different dimensions. Keywords: Socio-cultural Integration, Identity, Culture, Belonging, Syrian Refugees, Local Society, Social Relations, Migration Policy.