THROUGH THE EYES OF FORMER REFUGEES: NEW REFUGEES (A Sociological Study)

Ongoing wars, famines, and economic reasons have led to a significant increase in the number of migrants worldwide in recent years. Turkey is a country that receives migration from many nations due to its geographical location connecting Europe and the Middle East. As a result of these migrations, our country has experienced demographic, cultural, and economic changes, causing transformations in the coexistence, social relationships, and perceptions of both the native population and immigrants from different countries. Although Turkey has received migration in the past, as seen in the example of Afghan refugees, the issue of migration began to take an important place on Turkey's agenda with Syrian asylum seekers. The aim of this project is to investigate the perspectives of Afghan refugees who migrated to Turkey in 1982 due to occupation and internal war, towards Syrian asylum seekers who arrived in our country in 2011 due to the Arab Spring, under the subheadings of "social relationships, cultural/religious unity, and social life" from a sociological perspective. Additionally, we aim to examine whether the age differences among voluntary Afghan participants have an impact on their perspectives and whether it shows variation. Our study employs a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative and quantitative methods. While literature review studies investigating the perspectives of Turkish citizens towards Syrian asylum seekers have been found, no studies related to our specific subject have been encountered. The distinctiveness of our study lies in focusing on the perspective of former refugees towards new asylum seekers. Within the scope of the project, fieldwork was conducted, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 80 Afghan refugees residing in Ovakent Neighbourhood in our city. A 16-question survey prepared by us was also administered. Upon analysing the data obtained from the study, it is observed that Afghan refugees have a positive perspective towards Syrian asylum seekers, and cultural/religious unity positively influences their perspectives. According to the responses obtained from the semi-structured interviews, it is seen that participants in the middle-aged and older groups have a more positive view compared to younger participants.