Most of the Syrian refugees living in Turkey do not see a future in the country, according to a report drafted by an opposition deputy.
“Syrians want to go to Western countries. According to a Syrian worker, if Turkey were to open its borders, 90 percent of Syrians here would head West,” Gamze Akkuş İlgezdi, an İstanbul lawmaker from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), was quoted as saying by the Turkish media.
“The refugees who due to language problems have to work in informal, menial jobs despite having a profession back in Syria also look to Western countries. Seeing their lack of an adequate command of the local language as the primary obstacle for their integration, these individuals explain their desire to go to other countries with the financial help they would receive during the process of integration. They say, ‘You either work to survive here or learn the language,'” İlgezdi’s report states.
According to İlgezdi’s report, citing official data, there are 27,606 Syrian university students in Turkey. They also want to migrate to Western countries.
İlgezdi’s report cites Amir, a prospective food engineer who says his Turkish colleagues also want to go abroad. “How can we find a job where they [Turks who have graduated from university] can’t?”
According to the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) Turkey witnessed a 2 percent increase in its number of emigrants in 2019 compared to the previous year. A total of 330,289 people left the country last year, about 40.8 percent of whom were between the ages of 20 and 34.
Hate crimes against refugees and migrants, who are blamed for many of Turkey’s social and economic ills, have been escalating in recent years.
Turkish media including pro-government and opposition outlets fuel and exploit the flames of hatred against people who fled their countries and sought refuge in Turkey.
According to UNHCR Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees worldwide. The country is currently home to some 3.6 million registered Syrian refugees along with close to 320,000 persons of concern from other nationalities.