International Forced Migration and Employment Relations: The Case of Syrians in Türkiye

Abstract

Due to the political unrest following the civil war in 2011, several million Syrians had to flee from their own country to save their lives. The mass migration movement of Syrians, first within the country and then towards neighboring countries, brought many socio-economic problems. One of the worst hit nations is Türkiye, because of forced migration from Syria, where there are roughly five million registered and unregistered migrations. Although it has been nine years since the process began that was initially established as a temporary solution, and as a resolution could not be found, the dream of returning Syrians has weakened over time. This study aims to reveal how Syrians, who are included in the labor market in an unplanned way, affect the Turkish labor market. Dynamic Panel data analysis was performed using the data from 26 regions in Türkiye. As a result, a 1% increase in the immigration rate, which represents the share of Syrian immigrants in the region’s population, increases the employment rate by approximately 0.02%.