{"id":2548,"date":"2022-09-22T05:56:32","date_gmt":"2022-09-22T05:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spectrumhouse.com.tr\/?p=2548"},"modified":"2024-11-10T22:53:24","modified_gmt":"2024-11-10T19:53:24","slug":"perceptions-and-attitudes-of-kurdish-generation-z-towards-asylum-seekers-and-refugees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spectrumhouse.com.tr\/en\/perceptions-and-attitudes-of-kurdish-generation-z-towards-asylum-seekers-and-refugees\/","title":{"rendered":"Perceptions and Attitudes of Kurdish Generation Z Towards Asylum Seekers and Refugees"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

INTRODUCTION<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Increasing poverty, economic and environmental factors due to ongoing war and conflict conditions in several regions of the world result in major population movements and displacements. Internal conflicts in the Middle East and especially in Syria in 2011 have caused significant political, social, economic and cultural changes in this region, most notably in Turkey and in many parts of the world. These dynamics which resulted in major population movements and displacements have a significant impact on the political and social structure of Turkey and become a new sociological phenomenon.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The present study was conducted as a follow up on our research between the dates of 20.12.2021-10.01.2022 and focused on measuring social, political, economic and cultural trends in the Kurdish generation Z and on their future plans, worries and satisfaction levels. This part of our study focuses on measuring perceptions and attitudes of the Kurdish generation Z towards asylum seekers and refugees and underlying factors of these dynamics.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

This study which is synthesized with the field data of our previous Kurdish generation Z study is supported by similar studies and premier sources and focuses on the dynamics that shape the view of the members of this generation on \u201cforeigners\u201d , \u201cothers\u201d within the context of refugees and asylum seekers and seeks to reveal social, cultural and psychological background of these groups\u2019 interests, perceptions and attitudes. The study findings are examined in 5 main categories in questions about asylum seekers and refugees: 1- Residence permit, 2-Economic impact, 3-Repatriation, 4-Citizenship and 5-Social relationships.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Our present study which is supported by field data is neither an asylum seeker and refugee barometer nor a study specifically focused on Syrians. We believe that understanding the attitudes of the Kurdish generation Z concerning legal status, co-existence, integration, repatriation or \u201cforeigner\u201d label of the refugees and asylum seekers who have migrated\/have been forced to migrate to Turkey for a variety of reasons is important to build the future.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Members of the Kurdish generation Z which constitute the most dynamic groups of the Kurdish society and the country is a group that has experienced village evacuations and forced migration. The perceptions and attitudes of the Kurdish generation Z towards refugees and asylum seekers who have gone through similar displacement ordeals despite for different reasons are shaped by the effect of the general perspective about these people in the country. This is an important parameter for building future in Turkey.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

We hope that this present survey report will contribute to understanding both how the Kurdish generation Z approaches to the issue of refugees and asylum seekers, a new social reality in the country in their future plans and the underlying factors.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

We would like to thank to our team who provided guidance, coordinated face to face interviews and to everyone who supported and guided us with their ideas from the beginning to the end. We would also like to thank the members of the Kurdish generation Z who participated in our study and answered patiently to our questions.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

As of August 2022, there are approximately 4 million asylum seekers and refugees in Turkey, most of them from Syria who have different statuses such as temporary protection, international protection and conditional refugee (UNHCR, 2022). This report investigates the perceptions and attitudes of the Kurdish generation Z towards asylum seekers and refugees who remain in Turkey or are waiting to be relocated in a third country as a result of conflicts and socio-economic difficulties in their home countries. During interviews conducted face to face with 1,002 young people between the ages of 18-25 who live in Diyarbak\u0131r, Van, \u015e\u0131rnak, \u0130zmir and Istanbul, the respondents were asked questions about granting residence permits to asylum seekers and refugees in Turkey, the impact of asylum seekers and refugees on the Turkish economy, granting citizenships to asylum seekers and refugees and social relations they can build with asylum seekers and refugees.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The findings of this study demonstrate that respondents of Kurdish Generation Z generally have a negative perception and attitude towards asylum seekers and refugees and the underlying reasons are both the opinion of the general public on asylum seekers and refugees in the country and difficult sociopolitical and socioeconomic conditions of the respondents. Factors including internal migration experience, living in socio-economically developed cities developed with high sociocultural awareness and high level of education have a relatively positive effect on the perception and attitude towards asylum seekers and refugees. On the other hand, female respondents have a less negative attitude compared to male respondents. A majority of the respondents do not prioritize \u201cright based approach\u201d about the rights of asylum seekers and refugees, which suggests a worrying trend. On the other hand those who support the rights of asylum seekers and refugees generally have a consistent and holistic approach and include all the above rights.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Those who report that they don\u2019t belong to a religion support the rights of asylum seekers and refugees more compared to those who report that they belong to a religion (majority of respondents in this group claim that they are Muslims). Here, the equation of ensar-muhacir (ensar\u201d meaning citizens from Medina who helped Muhammad and his companions and \u201cmuhacir\u201d meaning immigrant) used by the government for Syrian refugees does not seem to resonate among the Kurdish generation Z.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The present study presents findings similar to previous studies and research on the Generation Z in Turkey and respondents in this study see asylum seekers and respondents as a risk or threat for employment opportunities, peace and wealth of the society in the country and explain it with false facts, which all show that adjectives used for the Generation Z such as \u201cfreedom-lover\u201d, \u201copen minded\u201d and \u201ccreative\u201d do not apply when it comes to asylum seekers and refugees.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Finally based on the study findings and evaluation of these findings, the report makes some recommendations to the government, opposition parties, local and international nongovernmental organizations, humanitarian aid organizations, public and policy makers.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Background<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

According to the data of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) there are four million asylum seekers and refugees registered in Turkey as of March 2020. There are 3.7 million Syrians, 167,325 Iraqis, 129,323 Afghans and 24,300 Iranians in this population (UNHCR, 2022). One of the most important problems, after civil war and poverty, faced by refugees and asylum seekers in Turkey from various countries most notably Syria and Afghanistan is the racist and hostile attitude (Duman, 2022)which also includes direct (physical and\/or psychological), structural and cultural\/symbolic violence from local communities and politicians (Galtung, 1990).Although the local community and refugees and asylum seekers have common personal and collective needs and problems, the economic crisis, polarization, upcoming elections and prolonged stay of refugees and asylum seekers in the country and arrival of new ones in the country result in worsening of existing attitudes of the public towards these groups.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Available studies demonstrate that local communities avoid having any relation or contact with refugees, object to their citizenship and believe that they should be returned\/repatriated to their countries or sent to a third country as soon as possible or when the war is over and that they damage the Turkish economy and social values (Erdo\u011fan, 2020; \u015ear and Kuru, 2020; Duman, 2021a; Ruhavio\u011flu et al., 2022).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Compared to 27 EU countries Turkey has the highest percentage of young population in Europe (T\u00dc\u0130K, 2022). Young Kurdish generation, which represents one of the most important section of the young generation in Turkey is one of the most important building stones to understand youth dynamism in the country. According to the TUIK data, the total population of Turkey as of 2021 was 84 million 680 thousand 273 and the young population between the ages of 15-24 was 12 million 971 thousand 289. Based on this data, young population represents 15.3 percent of the total population. According to the results of the Address Based Population Registration System (ADNKS) the top three cities with the highest percentage of young population is Hakkari with 22.8 percent, \u015e\u0131rnak with 22.1% and Siirt with 21.8% where the majority of the population is Kurdish. The cities with the highest young population percentages include cities with higher Kurdish population such as A\u011fr\u0131, Mu\u015f, Van, Batman, Bitlis, Mardin, Urfa, I\u011fd\u0131r, Erzurum, Diyarbak\u0131r, Kars, Bing\u00f6l, Antep and Ad\u0131yaman. The percentage of young population between the ages of 15-24 in 18 cities with a high Kurdish population is 28.1 percent while this percentage is 22.4% in other cities in Turkey.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

This study investigates the perceptions of the Kurdish generation Z about migration and settlement of refugees and asylum seekers who come to Turkey due to socioeconomic problems and armed conflicts in their country, about sending back refugees and asylum seekers whose lives known to be under threat; about allowing citizenships to those who have been in Turkey temporarily under different statuses and about relationships they can build with refugees and asylum seekers and socioeconomic, sociopolitical and socio-psychological factors that may be related with these perceptions.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Studies on the Generation Z in Turkey<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

While recent public opinion surveys about the Generation Z1<\/a>,2<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0investigate the perspective of this generation on the business world, future concerns and general discrimination (Deloitte, 2021) and which parties they tend to support (ORC, 2022), thesis and dissertation papers of master and doctorate students examine this generation from a wider angle. This wider angle includes consumption habits including social media use, perception of religion, work life, leadership, satisfaction in life-future concerns and career perspectives. There are limited number of studies that investigate the opinion of the generation Z on the refugees and asylum seekers. The study of Y\u0131lmaz and G\u00fcler in (2020a) which investigated the opinion of the generation Z on the employment of refugees in the country, majority of the respondents considered employment of refugees as a worrying factor since they thought that employment of especially young Syrian refugees lowers their chance of being employed and increases the competition. Another study conducted by them in the same year found that majority of the respondents did not support Syrians coming and living in Turkey (76%) and believed that the policies about this issue were inadequate (76.3%), that Syrians disrupt the social structure in the country (82.4%) and Syrians have privileges in terms of social rights (78.2%) (Y\u0131lmaz and G\u00fcler, 2020b). Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung\u2019s (KAS, 2022) study demonstrated that majority of the respondents did not think that the government\u2019s refugee policy was right (80.4%), believed that Syrians should be sent back (76.7%) and if Syrians stayed in Turkey, they would not adapt to the life in Turkey due to the differences in culture and life style. In the same study, approximately one fourth of the respondents believed that Syrians should be helped only in healthcare and food and no help should be provided for other areas (26.6%) and believed that refugees from other countries, especially from Syria caused unemployment (25.1%) in the country (KAS, 2022). Finally in the Varkey Foundation\u2019s research on the generation Z, one third of the respondents (31%) believed that conditions for the \u2018legal\u2019 refugees to come to Turkey and work here should be made more stringent and limiting (Broadbent et al., 2017). On the other hand, approximately one fourth of the respondents (23%) think that this process should be made easier (Varkey Foundation, 2017). The same study shows that almost half of the respondents (49%) believed that Turkey does the best it can for the \u201cglobal migration crisis (Broadbent et al., 2017).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Based on the limited number of studies that investigate perceptions and attitudes of the generation Z towards refugees and asylum seekers, there are some points worth mentioning. Contrary to the available global or multinational studies (sparks&honey, 2020; Deloitte, 2022) this study shows that members of the generation Z in Turkey mostly ignore cultural differences and inclusivity at work and in social life when it comes to refugees and asylum seekers. Additionally we can also see that the generation Z in Turkey typically have a negative attitude towards the presence of asylum seekers and refugees in Turkey and think that they should be sent back to Syria or sent to another country as soon as possible regardless of whether such refugees and asylum seekers are \u201clegally\u201d in Turkey.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The present study uses the data about refugees and asylum seekers collected with the Kurdish Generation Z study (Spectrum House, 2022) which we, Spectrum House published and intends to investigate perceptions and attitudes of the respondents towards refugees and asylum seekers and makes contributions to this subject. First of all, the majority of the studies conducted in Turkey consider Generation Z members as homogenous contrary to the real situation in the society. This study investigates perceptions and attitudes of the Kurdish society which is a minority group that has been subject to several discriminatory policies and practices and racist attitudes, towards refugees and asylum seekers who are also subject to similar discriminatory and racist policies, practices and attitudes. While doing this, this study acknowledges that the Kurdish society has a heterogeneous structure. Furthermore, a significant part of the available studies are interested on finding out what the respondents think about certain subjects. The present study intends to determine which political, economic, social and psychological factors could be related to the perceptions and attitudes of the respondents.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Method<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In this study, we conducted a survey with 1,002 young people between the ages of 18-25 who identify themselves as Kurdish in 28 sampling region in Diyarbak\u0131r, Van and \u015e\u0131rnak which are the three Kurdish cities with the youngest population and Izmir and Istanbul. The face to face survey was done using printed questionnaire forms and smart devices between the dates of 20th of December – 10th of January 2022 according to the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS2). The margin of error for the study findings is +\/\u22121.7 with a confidence interval of 95 percent. The respondents in this study were informed that they would fill out a questionnaire about the opinions of the Kurdish generation Z, that the participation was completely voluntary, that they could end the questionnaire whenever they wanted and all the information provided would be kept confidential and would never be disclosed to third parties and no identity information would be required and confidentiality was essential during the survey.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In addition to questions about demographics such as age, gender, education, income level, employment status, religion and language spoken at home (see Table 1), the following questions were also asked. Some of these were open ended question, while others were closed ended (yes\/no) and scale based questions (on a scale of 1 to 5).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Questions about refugees and asylum seekers were designed to investigate perceptions and attitudes of the respondents towards refugees and asylum seekers in five main areas. In the first two of these questions, the respondents were asked \u2018why\u2019 to explain the underlying reasons for their answers.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n