[fn]Crisis Group interview, expert on Syrian entrepreneurs, November 2017; 8 bini akn Suriyeli irket 100 bin kiiye istihdam salyor [More than 8 thousand Syrian businesses are employing 100 thousand], Anadolu Agency, 19 October 2017.Hide Footnote. Turkey continues to host 3.57 million Syrian refugees. It is thanks to religion that we do not see much violence, said an official working with an Islamist charity in Istanbul. Over 100,000 civil servants have been purged for alleged links to terrorist organisations, and nearly 1,500 NGOs were closed. Istanbul has a population of over 15,900,000 and hosts over 540,000 Syrians (about 3.4% of Istanbul's population). Alevis, as mentioned above, feel particularly vulnerable. Secularists and leftists, in particular, see the Syrians as pawns in a move by the AK Party government to dilute the concentration and perhaps, down the road, the electoral strength of minority constituencies. Crisis Group interview, expert on Syrian entrepreneurs, November 2017; 8 bini akn Suriyeli irket 100 bin kiiye istihdam salyor [More than 8 thousand Syrian businesses are employing 100 thousand], Anadolu Agency, 19 October 2017. Those who remain in Turkey, instead of moving onto Europe, tend to have little education and few skills. Ben Carson Says Syrian Refugees Are Like Rabid Dogs. The European Commission announced in December 2016 that it had signed contracts worth about 270 million for building and equipping schools that should accommodate more than 70,000 Syrian refugee children. These grievances are ripe for politicisation in the run-up to the 2019 elections, especially if economic growth slows, driving labour force participation down. [fn]Crisis Group interview, representative of an Alevi cemevi, Istanbul, July 2017. These newcomers arrive with a number of humanitarian and economic needs, ranging from housing and education to language support, and their sheer numbers in some cities have caused tensions with the local populace. [fn]Bakan Sarerolu, 2018 Yl Btesinin Sunumunu Gerekletirdi [Minister Sarerolu presented budget for 2018], 17 November 2017, http://bit.ly/2zaS2yG.Hide Footnote. cit. [fn]Crisis Group interview, migration expert, Ankara, July 2017.Hide Footnote, Overcrowding is especially acute in urban areas with high refugee concentrations. In some cases, rights that Turkish citizens do not have are being granted to Syrians. Relations are strained: Ankara complains that EU assistance is disbursed too slowly and ridden with too many conditions while the EU finds Turkeys bureaucracy ill prepared to absorb funding and develop projects effectively. The study team found a need to create a coordinated Istanbul-wide database, possibly under IMM, to provide more effective management and prevent abuse. But open discussion of such options cannot occur at the peak of Turkish nationalist fervour in the country today. [fn]Crisis Group interview, economist, Ankara, July 2017.Hide Footnote Many Kurds living in western metropolitan cities were themselves displaced from conflict in south-eastern Turkey and harbour longstanding grievances against authorities. Since 2015, Istanbul has become the province with the largest number of refugees: as of December 2017, the metropole hosted about 538,000 registered Syrians. Figure 3. However, as the influx continued ceaselessly, many new arrivals started to live outside of the camps, spreading to every region of the country. In Ankara, the percentage responding absolutely not rose from 20 per cent in 2009 to 35 per cent in 2015. The National Education Ministry posted a list of organisations that signed protocols on its website, http://hboprojeler.meb.gov.tr/protokol-liste.html. Workers cannot hold strikes. [fn]Crisis Group interviews, representatives of international organisations, Ankara, September 2017. Istanbul: IMM. cacarturk@ku.edu.tr. Gentrification over the past few years has already reduced the availability of affordable housing. In addition, refugee support is provided at municipal cultural centers, soup kitchens, municipal buildings, social markets, and neighborhood municipalities. Suriyeli renciler imam hatiplere ynlendirilsin genelgesi [Circular on directing Syrians to imam-hatip schools], Szc, 20 September 2017.Hide Footnote The representative of an NGO that recently secured a protocol called the process complicated and opaque: There is no clarity on why the protocol is granted or not NGOs with hundreds of employees do not know what their status will be two years from now. Crisis Group interview, economist, Ankara, July 2017. 2015. Crisis Group interview, Istanbul, July 2017. He had arrived in Istanbul a year ago. An estimated 750,000-950,000 Syrians currently work in the informal sector; only 15,000 have obtained the permits needed for formal employment. Since 2011, all Syrians, Palestinian refugees, and stateless persons living in Syria are eligible, as a group, for temporary protection in Turkey and an open door policy was enacted for those fleeing. Delivery of services through nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) is also a common strategy to overcome legal restrictions and make use of charitable donations. Turkey is proud of its reputation as the world's largest host of refugees, welcoming 3.6 million Syrians since the war began. KUR Trkiye Kurumu (Turkish Employment Agency). Jasmine is completing a bachelors degree in environmental engineering. Economic competition becomes especially bitter when it pits newcomers against groups that have long felt marginalised, such as the Kurds. [fn]Information on incentives for Turkish citizens available on KUR website, http://bit.ly/2wx6v2Q.Hide Footnote, Given the sheer numbers of the Syrians seeking employment and the size of Turkeys informal sector estimated to employ about one-third of the Turkish workforce many refugees have no choice but to accept informal employment, which generally means accepting lower wages, with no benefits or job security. As of late 2017, 37.5 per cent of the 976,200 school-age Syrian refugee children attended public schools while 24.5 per cent still studied in TECs. [fn]Suriyeli barndran ehre hazine teviki [Treasury incentives for cities housing refugees], Sabah, 11 September 2017.Hide Footnote. Babakan Yldrmdan dlibe Ynelik Operasyona likin Aklama [Prime Minister Yldrms statement on Idlib operation]. Left-wing and/or Alevi youth there clashed frequently with the nationalist police in the 1990s. [fn]Only educated Syrians deemed capable of contributing to the Turkish economy have been selected for citizenship, according to Turkish authorities. Syrians must become self-sustaining, not only to prepare for the eventual decrease of international aid, but also to mitigate the resentment of poverty-stricken locals. Crisis Group interview, representative of an Alevi. Distrust of security services is deeply rooted among Kurdish movement sympathisers, whose anger toward the state is sometimes channelled toward Syrian refugees. Syrian gay refugee killed in Istanbul Muhammed Wisam Sankari was a gay Syrian refugee. A middle-aged Turkish man in Ankaras Altnda summed up this sentiment: It is as if all these distributors of aid and the state only realised that this neighbourhood had a poverty problem after the Syrians settled here. As long as certain groups feel marginalised by the ruling party, they will be embittered by the integration of Syrians, and social cohesion will be harder to come by. [fn]Sahiller duman alt [Coastal areas are thick with smoke], Hrriyet, 4 July 2017.Hide Footnote, Such reports prompted strong rebukes from leading government figures. Accessed July 16, 2017. They typically employ Syrians as teachers and use an adapted Syrian curriculum. Government efforts to meet the needs of host communities and Syrians will be more effective and better perceived if the state also reaches out to constituencies who sympathise with opposition parties. According to a June 2017 study by Building Markets, a U.S.-based NGO, Syrians in Turkey have invested more than $330 million, creating more than 6,000 formal companies since 2011. The decision to phase out the TECs angered Turkish and Syrian families alike. This article offers a demographic profile of Syrian refugees, including age, gender, language, and religion, as well as top state and city destinations. Host community and Syrian concerns about coexistence in Turkish public schools need to be addressed through better public communication and by focusing on the message that refugee-related capacity-building also benefits locals. Recent attacks by regime forces in rebel-held parts of the province have forced up to 100,000 civilians to take refuge in makeshift camps near the Turkish border. A young Kurdish man was killed in a fight with an Afghan, supposedly over who could sit where in a park. The challenge of integrating over 3.4 million Syrians is compounding tensions in a country already struggling with socio-economic strains and political tensions. They should also develop mechanisms to defuse refugee-related tensions particularly in the countrys rapidly growing cities. Instead, they argue, funding needs to be designed to help Syrians become self-sustaining. "I quit working in factories and started this work after prices rose, and what I used to earn in factories was no longer enough for me," he . As of July 2017, around 235,000 Syrians, just 7.4 percent of the total, lived in 23 refugee camps (three camps were closed) in ten provinces. Murat Erdoan, Syrian Barometer, op. Investors, discouraged by bureaucratic hurdles and unsure of growth potential, provide these Syrian enterprises with little in the way of microfinance. Syrian refugees are provided with temporary protection, which allows them to stay in Turkey legally with access to basic services, such as health care, schooling and social assistance. It would also serve to generate creative ideas about how to bridge divides in localities that are politically divided. The vast majority of these people - 98.2% - live outside of refugee camps in cities, towns and villages, with only 63,443 Syrians living in refugee camps. [fn]Crisis Group interviews, Istanbuls Sultangazi district, July 2017.Hide Footnote. The tract of land now known as Sultangazi has witnessed waves of migration, starting in the mid-1970s when people came from across Anatolia. See Turkey: Fact Sheet, UNHCR, October 2017. AK Party Adalet ve Kalknma Partisi (Justice and Development Party): Turkeys ruling party since 2002, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoan. Crisis Group telephone interview, public education centre official in Izmirs Bornova district, October 2017. [fn]Crisis Group interview, Turkish officials, Ankara, September 2017.Hide Footnote The interior ministry had hired 386 guards in Istanbul by October 2017 and was considering applications for another 2,000 positions. Crisis Group field research, Izmir, Istanbul, Ankara, summer-fall 2017. Official statistics say there are more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey as of June, and according to a recent study the figure keeps rising - as well as hostility towards them.. Ambiguity Regarding the Status of Refugees. Finally, the report addresses how to promote the refugees socio-economic integration, without deepening sectarian and socio-economic differences. Crisis Group e-mail correspondence, EU official, November 2017. This requires eliminating some of the bureaucratic barriers that discourage Syrians formal employment. But authorities must also manage local host community anger by addressing their legitimate concerns about overcrowding and its impact on educational quality. Many Syrians received a warm welcome in Turkey. The first Syrians who came to Turkey were placed in 26 accommodation centers, built according to the highest standards and in very little time. cit. IHH nsani Yardm Vakf (Humanitarian Relief Foundation): A prominent Islamist-leaning Turkish aid organisation operational in more than 130 countries. International donors are seeking ways to support refugee-owned small and medium enterprises or SMEs. Many believe the incident was instigated by the deep state ultra-nationalists and their allies in the security forces to discourage the growth of Alevi and Kurdish dissent in big cities. Relatively few Syrians live there (around 90,000), and so there are few internationally funded programs to foster social cohesion. Turkish news outlets reported that the national education ministry, in a letter dated 8 September, had asked all 39 district directorates in Istanbul to direct Syrian students into religious imam-hatip schools. This is all building up frustration, which can be channelled against the Syrians, many of whom see Erdoan as their saviour. Locals complain about long lines at hospitals, crowded classrooms, skyrocketing rents, packed busses and piled-up trash. Syrian Barometer: A Framework for Achieving Social Coherence with Syrians, 6 December 2017, forthcoming manuscript to be published by Istanbul Bilgi University, cited with authors permission, available at, The number of registered Syrians in Istanbul rose rapidly since 2016, from 394,556 in April 2016 to 479,555 in April 2017 and 522,406 in November 2017, 537.829 in December 2017, according to Directorate-General of Migration Management (DGMM) figures available at. At least 35 people died in these incidents during 2017, including 24 Syrians. A Study of Refugees Protection Situation, Support to Life (Hayata Destek) Foundation, privately shared with Crisis Group on 2 January 2018. All live in Istanbul and speak Turkish fluently, and all are Syrian refugees. Police bully our young men daily. It took all night for police three of whom were reportedly injured by stabbing to restore order. The Istanbul average yes vote was 48.6 per cent. It cant be proven one way or another. NGO representative views shared at event attended by Crisis Group titled Migration and the Integration into the Education System organised by Friedrich Naumann Foundations Turkey Office, Istanbul, 13 October 2017.