Forced Displacement and Institutional Arrangements for Structural Integration: Education of Syrian Refugee Children in South-East Turkiye as an Indicator of Integration

Within the last decade, the Syrian refugee crisis has become the world’s largest humanitarian challenge with 6.6 million people displaced as a result of a violent government crackdown in 2011. Nowadays, Syrian refugees have settled down in more than 130 countries, including Turkiye hosting the largest number of forcibly displaced Syrians – currently about 4 million, with 3.6 million being officially registered. Today, the situation in Syria remains still unstable and has not been safe for refugees to come back to their homes. Therefore, Syrians, displaced in Turkiye for nearly twelve years, have had their needs shift from emergency response to programs focused on their integration. Referring to international standards of protection and integration, and national policies on asylum-seekers and refugees in Turkiye, this research focuses on the questions derived from academic literature on social integration, and explores whether and how the local context and institutional service provisions affect refugee integration in the country of destination. Primarily, the aim of the research is to study the process of structural integration of the most vulnerable part of the Syrian community in Turkiye: Syrian children and their access to compulsory education in South-eastern region of Turkiye. Based on the international legal standards, the practical part of the research assesses policies and action plans on integration and inclusion of the Syrian children in educational system implemented by the Turkish government. The goal of the practical part of the study is to find out the number of refugee children that remain out of school and study the reasons for their non-inclusion in compulsory educational institutions. The practical part of the research will be based on a conceptual framework built upon qualitative literature review and supported by existing field surveys on Syrian children’s access to education and data thereof. The concluding chapter puts forward assessment results with further presentation of policy implications, best practices and relevant recommendations of international organizations that should be considered by the Turkish government during the process of planning the educational activities and psycho-social support to be rendered to Syrian refugee children.