A Qualitative Research on Syrian Migration in The Context of Social Change

Abstract

Migration is accepted as a serious turning point in the lives of societies as well as individuals. With the phenomenon of migration, it is inevitable that the society, which is both immigrant and exposed to immigration, does not change socially, culturally and economically. The aim of this study is to investigate whether the Syrian migration to Turkey with the Syrian war caused a social change in Sakarya and the Syrian refugees, and if so, to what extent the social change took place. Ethics committee approval for the research was obtained with the decision numbered 2023-SBB-0017 of the Social and Human Sciences Ethics Committee of the University of Sakarya,  ...meeting dated 18.01.2023 and numbered 01.In the study, in which the qualitative research method was used, the data were obtained through in-depth interviews conducted in line with the questions created by the researcher. Sakarya constitutes the universe of the research. The research was carried out in Tığcılar, Hızırtepe and Semerciler Neighborhoods, where Syrians mostly live in Sakarya. Within the scope of the research, in-depth interviews were conducted with the local people in Sakarya and temporary Syrian refugees. The sample group to be selected consists of a total of 40 people, including 20 Syrians, 10 men and 10 women, and 20 participants from Sakarya, 10 men and 10 women. According to the information obtained as a result of the research, the participants from Sakarya think that there is no social change in Syrians because Syrians are constantly together, but there are social and cultural changes in Sakarya and they narrow their job opportunities economically. The majority of Syrian participants, on the other hand, are of the opinion that there is no change because the two communities are very similar to each other. The opinion that there is no change in the lives of the Syrian participants is considered a consistent result for the two participant groups. It is seen that the participants from Sakarya do not want to think about a common future due to the differences between the two communities, and the Syrian participants, on the contrary, point out that a common future is possible because the two communities are very similar to each other, but the prejudice of the local people can prevent this.