Executive summary

The asylum movement of the Syrians to Turkey brought a wide segment of the Syrian working hand to the Turkish official and non-official work market. This working hand clearly affected the Turkish work market and the different work fields allowed the Syrians to secure a financial resource which enabled them to secure the minimum level of sustenance.

The Syrian labor forms about 2.9% of the total size of labor in the Turkish official and non-official work market according to the statistics of the Turkish government. The paper tried to know the current reality of this Syrian labor through studying one of the segments that joined the work market which is the segment of residents of the youth residence.

The results showed that the studied segment mainly focuses its work in the non-official work market especially in the fields of industrial workshops, clothes and shoes which cover more than half of the Syrian labor. The industrial fields is followed by the constructions field, companies and trading shops field, free businesses field and finally the restaurants and bakeries field. The rest is divided in different work fields like cars maintenance, work in moving and selling coal, agriculture, media, education and other fields with small percentages.

The Syrian labor faced a state of exploitation in the work field whether from the Syrian or Turkish employers as the results indicate that 92% of the Syrian laborers from the studied segment work more than 8 hours a day (45 work hours weekly and among them about 59% work more than 65 hours weekly without getting a financial compensation that fits the additional work or getting an accepted level of vacations of legal rights.

With the prolonged and tiring work circumstances, about 75% of the laborers receive salaries lower than the  minimum level of wages which is 2825 TRY as 50% of them receive a monthly wage average between 1500 and 2500 TRY (175-300 USD) while 25% of them receive salaries more than 2500 TRY. The salaries rates didn’t fit the long hours of work. However, owning advanced linguistic knowledge can increase the chance of getting higher salaries in some cases.

Regarding the legal situation of the Syrian workers in the Turkish market, about 90% of the studied segment works in an irregular way without official work licenses although 85% of them don’t have any legal obstacle to issue this license. The main reason for that is the negligence of the employers and their wish to escape paying social insurances in a try to decrease the cost of production.

And about the nature of the Syrian labor in the Turkish work market we find that the Syrian labor within the studied segment which entered the Turkish work market is a youth labor segment as 87% of this labor belongs to the age group between 18 and 30 years old. However, his labor owns low education levels especially in young age groups but this segment also include overqualified labor from owners of university degrees with a percentage of 20% from the total Syrian laborers. This percentage of laborers work in low professions that don’t fit their qualifications and this causes increased loss for them as individuals as their potentials aren’t completely used and also a loss for the Turkish economy as they are getting punished twice in the work market, first for getting a work permission and then for not recognizing their certifications.

 Most of Syrian workers in the Turkish work market- despite the decrease in their salaries lower than the minimum level of wages- monthly transfer part of their salaries to their families inside Syria as we find 85% of the studied segment in the research transfer part of their salaries to their families 65% of them do these transfer frequently on monthly basis.

The conditions of work in the Turkish market changed the work routine that the Syrian labor got used to as this labor moved to longer and less stable works. The work market also contained bigger numbers of women who changed to breadwinners for their families as a result for the conditions of asylum or the circumstances made them work to help their spouses in securing an acceptable income for the family. The work market attracted the youthful segments and minors with higher percentage as these segments lost chances of getting good education in Turkey or completing university study for many reasons.

The Syrian labor includes vast segment that own previous experience but this segment wasn’t able to transfer their previous experience to the Turkish work market. The Syrian labor is focused in specific patterns of professions and most of the Syrians worked in low professions with medium skills while a low percentage that is not more than 7% worked in professions that require high skills. The focus on work sectors with low skills had an effect in hindering the chances of fast integration and the continuation of consuming social services as the slow integration is expected to lead to the gathering of the Syrians in poor neighborhoods and the outbreak of a future social conflict.

On the other hand, the Syrian labor affected the non-official work market through increasing the profits as a result for the decrease in the wages and non-official nature of workers. It also participated in supporting many economic sectors especially with the increase of the economic crises that Turkey faces and the increase of its implications because of Corona pandemic.

Moreover, the work of the Syrians in non-official sector affected the revenues of Social Security Organization as the annual losses of this organization were estimated with 7 billion TRY from the revenues of the Social Security. In addition to that, the Turkish government- in the same time- had to bear the burden of providing health care services for Syrian refugees that belong to the interim protection system.

Despite all the efforts of the Turkish government and the efforts of international organizations which provided a lot of trainings, all these efforts are still simple in front of the size of the required needs especially with regard to the vocational trainings as these trainings were not fairly distributed between governorates and didn’t targets all segments of Syrians.

The paper provided a group of recommendations that focused on the importance of correcting the situation of the Syrian labor and guaranteeing their rights as well as increasing the vocational trainings and the trainings related to the Turkish language as well as providing flexible university grants that correspond with the conditions of this segment especially the segment of minors. This is in addition to the necessity of encouraging investors and employers and supporting them to move some of their workshops and work centers to far Turkish governorates or to the areas of the Syrian north for the effect of this step on decreasing expenditure and redistributing the Syrians and encouraging them to return to their country in the Future.

To download the reseach paper (Arabic)