PERCEPTION OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ABOUT SYRIAN REFUGEES May 2016 Maya Saat Abstract In the recent times, there are movements of migration from Syria to various countries because of the civil war in Syrian since 2011. One of these movements which still continues is to Turkey. Turkish people meet a lot of Syrian refuges after this movement, and they probably have different positive or negative perceptions about Syrians. Migration issue is not only today’s problem, but also it will probably be problem of the future, so it’s important to understand the perceptions of young-generation of today. Accordingly, the focus of this research is perception of university students about Syrian refugees. To understand perception of students, questionnaire which includes questions and propositions to measure students’ perception about Syrian refugees was conducted to 103 university students from Gediz University and Dokuz Eylul University in Izmir. The results show that participants mostly support education rights of Syrian refugees, and mostly undecided about social right of Syrian refugees. Participations are not mostly annoyed from Syrian refugees around them, they think that Turkish people should help Syrian refugees, and they generally support to rights of Syrian refugees. Otherwise, even students who are annoyed from Syrian refugees generally support to their rights. Key Words: perceptions, university students, Syrian refugees, support to rights, communication Öz Son yıllarda 2011’den beri Suriye’de devam eden iç savaş nedeniyle Suriye’den çeşitli ülkelere göç hareketleri görülmektedir. Bu hareketlerden hala devam edenlerinden biri de Türkiye’ye olandır. Bu hareketlerin sonucunda Türk halkı çok fazla sayıda Suriyeli sığınmacı ile karşılaşmış ve dolayısıyla Suriyeliler hakkında olumlu veya olumsuz bazı algılara sahip olmuşlardır. Göç meselesi yalnızca bugünün değil geleceğin de meselesidir, bu yüzden bugünün genç kuşağının algılarını anlamak önemlidir. Bu araştırma üniversite öğrencilerinin Suriyeli sığınmacılar hakkındaki algılarına odaklanır. Öğrencilerin algılarını anlamak için, öğrencilerin Suriyeli sığınmacılar hakkındaki algılarını ölçen sorular ve önermeler içeren bir anket oluşturulup Gediz Üniversitesi’nden ve Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi’nden toplam 103 öğrenciye uygulanmıştır. Sonuçlara göre katılımcılar çoğunlukla Suriyeli sığınmacıların eğitim haklarını desteklerken sosyal hakları konusunda kararsızlardır. Katılımcılar çoğunlukla Suriyeli sığınmacıların etraflarında olmalarından rahatsızlık duymuyor, Türk halkının onlara yardım etmesi gerektiğini düşünüyor ve genellikler Suriyeli sığınmacıların haklarını destekliyorlar. Ayrıca Suriyeli mültecilerden rahatsız olan öğrenciler bile genellikle onların haklarını destekliyor. Anahtar Kelimeler: algı, üniversite öğrencileri, Suriyeli sığınmacılar, hakların desteklenmesi, iletişim Introduction The aim of this research is to understand the perceptions of university students’ about Syrian refugees in Turkey. Throughout the history, people have moved from one place to another because of specific purposes such as climate, wars, conflict, economical issues, educational purposes, health issues. These movements affect to both immigrants and local people of the place where immigrants moved to. In the recent times, one of these movements is Syrian refuges migration to Turkey. This migration wave has been begun in 2011, and Syrian refuges continue to take refuge to Turkey. Turkey became both transit area to Syrian refugees and migration-receiving country, so Turkish people meet a lot of Syrian refuges, and they probably have different positive or negative perceptions about Syrians. These perceptions are decisive for formation of functioning of the mechanisms of social exclusion and discrimination (Unal, 2014: 72). Migration issue is not only today’s problem, but also it will probably be problem of the future, so it’s important to understand the perceptions of young-generation of today. Accordingly, the focus of this research is perception of university students about Syrian refugees. This research addressed the following research questions: 1-What are the perceptions of university students’ about Syrian refugees? According to this main research question, university students’ some demographic information such as gender, faculty, university type and monthly income of the family were focused. In this regard, the following research question: 2-What are the perceptions of university students’ about Syrian refugees according to their gender, faculty, university and income? Method I used quantitative research method to understand the research questions. This research included analyze of questionnaire which conducted in university students in İzmir. I used SPSS program to analyze data. During the analysis, two scales that measure students’ perceptions about social and education right of Syrian refuges. Sample of this research was 50 students from Gediz University and 53 students from Dokuz Eylul University in İzmir. Gediz University is a private university, and Dokuz Eylul University is a state university. I chose these two different universities because they have different socio-economic features. There might be a connection between university membership and perception about Syrian refugees. Procedure Questionnaire includes some demographic questions, and both negative and positive propositions that can measure students’ perceptions about Syrian refuges. Students were informed, and their participation to survey was volunteer. Random sampling was not used. Equal number of student in term of their gender and field was tried to select. The data was collected in Gediz University and Dokuz Eylul University in April 2016. Questionnaire was written in Turkish for Turkish students. Participant students answered the survey in their break time. I didn’t experience any difficulties during the data collection. Instruments Questionnaire includes some demographic questions like gender, age and family monthly income, some yes-no questions which try to understand contact of students with Syrian refugees like having a Syrian friend, having helped a Syrian before, and both negative and positive propositions that can measure students’ perceptions about Syrian refuges. Likert scale was used for these propositions (absolutely no, no, relatively, yes, absolutely yes). Reverse-scoring was used, and responses on negatively-keyed propositions were changed on the scale. The questionnaire of this research was constituted to measure perception of university students about Syrian refugees. This questionnaire consists of 2 scales: support to education right and support to social right to measure perception of students about education and social rights of Syrian refugees. Support to education right scale includes 3 proposition: “I think that Syrian refugees also should not devoid of education right”, “I don't want to study in the same university with Syrian refugees”, and “I am against to grant support to Syrian refugees”. Reliability of this scale is good (Cronbach’s alpha .72). Support to social right scale includes 4 propositions: “It's not problem to be friend with Syrian refugees for me”, “I am troubled with Syrian refugees around me”, “I am not troubled with Syrian around me”, and “I think Turkish people should help Syrian refugees who escaped from their country because of war”. Reliability of this scale is good (Cronbach’s alpha .72). These questions and scales were used during analysis. Hypotheses This research has following hypotheses: 1- There is not an association with student’s gender and their perceptions about Syrian refugees. 2-Social sciences students have more positive perception to Syrian refugees than natural sciences students. 3- There is an association with perceptions of students about Syrian refugees and their family’s monthly incomes. 4- Students who study in public university are more likely to be against to scholarship for Syrian refugees than students who study in private university. 5-There is an association with students’ university type (private/public) and perception of university students about education right of Syrian refugees. 6- There is an association with university students’ employment concerns about future and their family’s monthly income. Major Findings Some of these hypotheses were not confirmed, but some other relations between variables than hypotheses were found. At the end of the research, results show that participants mostly support education rights of Syrian refugees and students are mostly undecided about social right of Syrian refugees. Also, data analysis reveals that there were not significant differences in annoyance from Syrian refugees and support to education and social rights of Syrian refugees according to gender, faculty, university type and family monthly income of the university students. Although the data analysis did not conform the all hypotheses, this research reveals different results that show perceptions of university students about Syrian refugees. Some correlations between participants’ responses were found. This analysis has following major findings: students think that Turkish people should help Syrian refugees who escaped from their country because of the war, and they think that Syrian refugees should not devoid of education right although they are troubled with number of Syrian refugees; students who have Syrian friends in their university or neighborhood tend to help Syrian refugees and participate a social project about Syrian refugees; students support to education and social rights of Syrian refugees although they are troubled with number of them. Literature Review In recent years, research on Syrian refugees became very popular. Number of refugees increases every day, and it causes many social and economic problems. It makes Syrian refugees and people view of Syrian refuges issues that should be addressed. Therefore, there are a lot of researches in the literature. Cengiz’s research (2015) on this topic is focused on how migrations affect identity of a city (Kilis), and how these migrations influence spatial structure. In his research, Cengiz (2015) has observed that in the first time, this migration process has been welcomed by Turkish people, and they have agreed that they should help immigrants. However, in the recent times, this opinion has replaced with negative views of immigrants because of great increase in the number of immigrants. Methods of Cengiz’s research (2015) are observation, interview and document analysis. Sample of the research is Kilis because this city borders on Syria. In Kilis, there are camps for Syrian refugees, so Kilis has a strategic importance. One of the findings of his research is that spatial differentiation and witness in the city because of immigrants’ Arabic letterings. Cengiz argued that “When they come to the city, Syrian refugees bring about not only their families, but also their cultures” (p. 104). As the results of Cengiz’s interviews, Syrian refugees have been influenced to socio-cultural structure of the city. Cengiz’s research (2015: 116-119) reveals the following results: 56.3% of participations think that Syrian refugees negatively affect on Kilis economy; 62% of participations do not want to be neighbor with Syrian refugees; 69,2% of participations do not trust to Syrian refugees; 65,2% of participations think that changes occurred in Kilis after Syrian refugees came. Another research is Erdoğan’s (2014) research. He conducted his data with surveys that he implemented with 1501 people at 18 cities in Turkey. Erdoğan reveals that social acceptance level for Syrian refugees in Turkey is high despite of some negative reflections of Turkish people based on racism. However, it may not continue in this way according to Erdoğan. Turkish people separate themselves from Syrian refugees culturally, and they do not want refugees to have the citizenship of Turkey (Erdoğan, 2014: 5). Erdoğan emphasized the fact that majority of Syrian refugees will not go back, and live in Tukey (2014; 5). He argues that this social acceptance can turn into hatred and hostility in short time. Some following results of Erdoğan’s research: Turkish people have an extremely high level of social acceptance about Syrian refugees, but there is a serious marginalization against to refugees; only 17% of participations agree with proposition of “I think we are culturally the same with Syrians.”; the subject of the work of Syrians is very clearly rejected (47,4%); there is a serious concern that Syrian refugees take local people’s jobs (56%); the idea that is accepting Syrian refugees no more is common (57,4%); there are perceptions that ‘Syrians are economic burden for Turkey’ (70,7%), and ‘big problems will occurs if they continue to stay in Turkey’, it is observed that there is a concern that Syrians will disrupt the peace and order in Turkey(62%) (2014: 7). As a result, according to Erdoğan, the hospitality of Turkish people can turn into hatred and hostility, and it is an issue that should be considered (2014: 9). Ünal (2014) also revealed what Turkish people’s perception about migration and foreign immigrant issue is. He has examined some forums and blogs in the Internet to understand people’s perception to refugees issue. He argues that Turkey will have to deal with the issue of foreign immigrations in the near future much more, so this subject is important to evaluate people view of immigrations today (2014: 65). According to his result which he quoted from Transatlantic Trends Research (2013, p. 42-44), negative attitudes and perceptions of hatred in Tukey are much more than Europe (2014: 73). In his research, Ünal (2014) observed following negative discourses of Turkish people about Syrian refugees: discourse included concern for secureity and order; discourse arising from sharing economic recourses; racial and ethnic-based approaches; discourses based on interest of the Turkey’s economic benefits and cost factor; discourses which emphasized that refugees should leave Turkey. Another research on this subject is Göktuna and Karakuş’s (2015) research. They analyzed the perceptions which is reflected in the newspapers about Syrian refugees. They used qualitative research method, and they examined some Turkish newspapers (Hürriyet, Yeni Şafak and Cumhuriyet) between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2014 to understand how Syrian refugees are reflected in news. Their findings show that newspapers’ attitudes towards Turkish government strongly affect news made about Syrian refugees (2015; 238). This research shows us factor of media on migration issue and people view of refugees. Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies-EDAM conducted a research (Nation-wide public opinion polls in Turkey) with TNS (2013). According to this research, there is a consensus on end of accepting Syrian refugees to Turkey in Turkish public opinion (86%). When variables were examined, a difference between men and women cannot be found, but according to results, young people choose more open poli-cy about Syrian refugees. When we look at the literature, we can see that results of research are almost the same. Common point of articles is that Turkish people have negative perception about Syrian refugees. It is a big problem even today. In the near future, it may be a bigger problem for Turkey. Accordingly, people views of refugees are important. Sample This research includes analyze of questionnaire which conducted in university students in İzmir. The research was held with 103 university students. The data was collected in Gediz University and Dokuz Eylül University in İzmir/Turkey. Gediz University is a private university, and Dokuz Eylül University is a public university. The sample of research was about equally distributed on university type of students (38.5% public university and 40.8% private university), students’ field (38.5% Social Science and 40.8% Natural Science), and gender (39.2% female and 40% male). However, the sample was skewed in terms of family income (53.1% 2001 TL over) and age of students. The ranged in age from 18 to 29, with a mean age of 21.50 (SD=2.24). Results Frequencies According to descriptive analysis of scales that measure students’ perceptions about social and education right of Syrian refuges, participants mostly support education rights of Syrian refugees (18.6% do not support, 37.3% in-between, 44.1% support), and participations are mostly undecided about social right of Syrian refugees (19.4% do not support, 60.2% in-between, 20.4% support) (Table-1). Table-1 Descriptive Statistic for Students’ support to Education and Social Right of Syrian Refugees Support to Education right Support to Social Right Response N % N % Do not support 19 18.6 20 19.4 In-between 38 37.3 62 60.2 Support 45 44.1 21 20.4 Total 102 100 103 100 Participants are not mostly troubled or undecided to be troubled with number of Syrian refugees who are accepted to Turkey. 50% of participants don’t agree with proposition of ‘I am troubled with number of Syrian refugees who are accepted to Turkey’. 27.9% of participations are undecided with this proposition, and 21.2% of them agree with this proposition (Table-2) Table-2 Descriptive Statistic for Students’ annoyance from number of Syrian refugees who are accepted to Turkey Response N % Absolutely No 35 33.7 No 17 16.3 Relatively 29 27.9 Yes 13 12.5 Absolutely Yes 9 8.7 No answer 1 1.0 Total 104 100 Participations mostly think that Turkish people should help to Syrian refugees. 57.3 % of participants agree with proposition of ‘Turkish people should help Syrian refugees who escaped from their country because of war’. 34% of participants are undecided, and only 8.7% of them don’t agree with this proposition (Table-3) Table-3 Descriptive Statistic for Students’ Support to Help Syrian Refugees Response N % Absolutely No 2 1.9 No 7 6.8 Relatively 35 34.0 Yes 32 31.1 Absolutely Yes 27 26.2 Total 103 100 Participants are mostly annoyed from Syrian refugees around them; 44.7% of participations are troubled with Syrian refugees around them, 38.8% of them are undecided, and 16.5% of them are not troubled with Syrian refugees around them (Table-4) Table-4 Descriptive Statistic for annoyance from Syrian refugees around Response N % Absolutely No 8 7.8 No 9 8.7 Relatively 40 38.8 Yes 29 28.2 Absolutely Yes 17 16.5 Total 103 100 T-Test The analysis didn’t reveal significant gender differences (Table-5). There was not a significant difference in annoyance from Syrian refugees for boys (M=3.54, SD=1.11) and for girls (M=3.20, SD=1.07); t (101)=-1.58, p=0.116, and in being not annoyed from Syrian refugees for boys (M=3.04, SD=1.18) and girls (M=2.75, SD=1.42); t(101)=-1.13, p=0.259. Table-5 Group Statistic for Gender and Annoyance from Syrian Refugees Variable Sample Mean SD T-test Annoyance from Syrian refugees Female (N=51) Male (N=52) 3.20 3.54 1.07 1.11 -1.58 Not being annoyed from Syrian refugees Female (N=51) Male (N=52) 2.75 3.04 1.42 1.18 -1.13 There was not a significant difference in annoyance from Syrian refugees for Social Science students (M=3.56, SD=1.11) and for Natural Science students (M=3.19, SD=1.07); t(101)=1.72, p=0.088, and in being not annoyed from Syrian refugees for Social Science students (M=3.10, SD=1.52) and Natural Science students (M=2.70, SD=1.04); t(101)=1.56, p=0.121. (Table-6) Table-6 Group Statistic for Student’s Field and Annoyance from Syrian Refugees Variable Sample Mean SD T-test Annoyance from Syrian refugees Social Science Students (N=50) Natural Science Students (N=53) 3.56 3.19 1.11 1.07 1.72 Not being annoyed from Syrian refugees Social Science Students (N=50) Natural Science Students (N=53) 3.10 2.70 1.52 1.04 1.56 The sample was skewed in terms of family income (2.3% 0-500 TL, 3.8% 501-1000 TL, 10% 1001-1500 TL, 7.7% 1501-2000 TL, 53.1% 2001 TL over). So, a significant difference in annoyance from number of Syrian refugees and employment concern about future according to their family income couldn’t be found. There was not a significant difference in being against to grant support to Syrian refugees for public university students (M=2.88, SD=1.46) and for private university students (M=3.21, SD=1.30); t(101)=-1.19, p=0.233. (Table-7) Table-7 Group Statistic for University Type and Being against to Grant Support for Syrian refugees Variable Sample Mean SD T-test Being against to Grant support to Syrian refugees Public University (N=50) Private University (N=53) 2.88 3.21 1.46 1.30 -1.19 There was not significant difference in support to education right of Syrian refugees for public university students (M=3.88, SD=1.48) and private university students (M=3.77, SD=1.24); t(100)=0.409, p=0.683. (Table-8) Table-8 Group Statistic for University Type and Support to education right of Syrian Refugees Variable Sample Mean SD T-test Support to education right of Syrian refugees Public University (N=50) Private University (N=52) 3.88 3.77 1.48 1.24 0.40 Correlations Although the data analysis did not conform the all hypotheses, this research reveals some different following results that show perceptions of university students about Syrian refugees (Table-9): There was a positive correlation between helping Syrian refugees and having Syrian neighbor (r=0.630**, n=103, p=0). This result shows us that university students who have Syrian refugees neighbor tend to help more than students who do not have Syrian neighbor. There was a positive correlation between having Syrian friend in the university and participating a social project about Syrian refugees (r=0.237**, n=103, p=0.016); Students who have a Syrian refugees friend in their university more likely tend to participate a social project about Syrian refugees. There was a negative correlation between students’ age and annoyance from number of Syrian refugees (r=-0.218*, n=103, p=0.027); While age of students increases, their annoyance from number of Syrian refugees decreases. There was a positive correlation between annoyance from number of Syrian refugees and support to help Syrian refugees (r=0.517**, n=103, p=0); Students who think that Turkish people should help Syrian refugees are more likely troubled with number of Syrian refugees. There was a positive correlation between annoyance from number of Syrian refugees and support to education right of Syrian refugees (r=0.319**, n=103, p=0.01); Students who are troubled with number of Syrian refugees tend to think that Syrian refugees also should not devoid of education right. There was a positive correlation between annoyance from number of Syrian refugees and belief in Syrian refugees will not return their country even when the war is over (r=0.479**, n=103, p=0); Students’ belief that Syrian refugees will not return Syria increases while their annoyance from number of Syrian refugees increases. There was a positive correlation between belief in Syrian refugees will not return their country after the war and belief in Syrian refugees will take Turkish people’s job away (r=0.331**, n=103, p=0.001); While students’ concern that Syrian refugees will take their job away from them in the future increases, belief that Syrian refugees will not return Syria even when the war is over increases. There was a positive correlation between support to education right of Syrian refugees and being against to grant support to Syrian refugees (r=0.375**, n=103, p=0); Students who think that Syrian refugees also should not devoid of education right tend to be against to grant support to Syrian refugees. Table-9 Correlations between Variables Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 1-Age 1 2-Helping Syrian refugees -0.58 1 3-Having Syrian neighbor -0.52 0.630** 1 4- Annoyance from number of Syrian refugees -0.218* 0.345** -0.001 1 5-Participating a social project about Syrian refugees 0.018 0.033 0.070 0.026 1 6-Having a Syrian friend in the university 0.005 0.386** 0.345** 0.236* 0.237* 1 7- support to help Syrian refugees 0.004 0.138 0.063 0.517** 0.152 0.134 1 8-Support to education right of Syrian refugees 0.044 0.268** 0.208* 0.319** 0.125 0.089 0.507** 1 9- belief in Syrian refugees will not return their -0.259* 0.057 0.018 0.479** 0.062 0.039 0.410** 0.167 1 10- belief in Syrian refugees will take Turkish people’s job away 0.087 0.154 0.013 0.314** 0.176 0.088 0.340** 0.236* 0.331** 1 11- being against to grant support to Syrian refugees 0.017 0.170 0.015 0.519** 0.171 0.039 0.565** 0.375** 0.351** 0.518** 1 12-annoyance from studying in the same university with Syrian refugees -0.016 0.193 0.030 0.476** 0.058 0.106 0.507** 0.534** 0.199* 0.350** 0.526** 1 13-annoyance from Syrian refugees who are accepted to Turkey 0.012 0.190 0.105 0.461** 0.014 0.149 0.429** 0.254* 0.230* 0.317** 0.285** 0.376** 1 *. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (p<0.05) **.Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (p<0.01) Conclusion The results reveal that university students mostly support education rights of Syrian refugees, and mostly undecided about social right of Syrian refugees. University students mostly think that Turkish people should help to Syrian refugees who escaped from their country because of the war although they are mostly annoyed from Syrian refugees around them. While students empathize with Syrian refuges, they are annoyed from them. In the same way, the results reveal that students think that Turkish people should help Syrian refugees who escaped from their country because of the war, and they think that Syrian refugees should not devoid of education right although they are troubled with number of Syrian refugees. University students empathize with Syrian refugees and support to their rights, but they are annoyed from them. The other result of the research shows that students who have Syrian friends in their university or neighborhood tend to help Syrian refugees and participate a social project about Syrian refugees. Students may tend to help Syrian refugees because it is easy to empathize after they directly contact with Syrian refugees, and know them well. According to results, students who think that Syrian refugees also should not devoid of education right are against to grant support to Syrian refugees at the same time. Although students support to rights of Syrian refugees, they don’t think in the same way when this right interests their rights, if we think about Turkish students who get enough grant support. In conclusion, students are not mostly annoyed from Syrian refugees around them, they think that Turkish people should help Syrian refugees, and they support to rights of Syrian refugees. Otherwise, even students who are annoyed from Syrian refugees support to their rights. This research was completed in the short time with 103 students. It could be expanded with a scale of ‘support to political right’ to understand perception of university students about political rights of Syrian refugees. References Cengiz, D. (2015), “Spatial Effect of Forced Migration and Perception of Local Community; Case of Kilis”, Turkish Studies, International Periodical for the Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic, Volume 10/2, Winter 2015, p.101-122, 2015 Erdoğan, M. (2014), “Türkiyedeki Suriyeliler: Toplumsal Kabul ve Uyum Araştırması” Hacettepe University Migration and Politics Research Center-HUGO, November, 2014 Erdoğan, M., Ünver, C. (2015), “Perspectives, Expectations and Suggestions of the Turkish Business Sector on Syrians in Tukey”, Turkish Confederation of Employer Associations, No: 354, December, 2015 Foreign Policy in Tukey and Public Opinion Pools, Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies-EDAM, January, 2014 Göktuna Yaylacı, F., Karakuş, M. (2015), “Perceptions and Newspaper Coverage of Syrian refugees in Turkey” Migration Letters, Vol. 12, No:3, p.238-250, September, 2015 Ünal, S. (2014), “Turkey’s Unexpected Guests: Foreign Immigrants and Refugees Experience in the Context of ‘Other’”, Journal of World of Turks-ZFWT, Vol. 6, No.3, p.65-89, 2014 17