National circumstances such as war, political instability, economic difficulties cause many people to leave their countries and relocate to other countries as migrants or refugees. These people, who are then subjected to a different cultural setting, are faced with serious problems prior to, during and after migration. Such problems may be physical, mental, psychological, economic, social and cultural. Among the most serious issues are failure to integrate into the social life of the host country, lack of education and employment for the young, cultural shock due to alienation, refusal of the local population towards the refugees, abuse and harassment of migrant women, etc. Relocation of millions of people in waves of uncontrolled migration also causes dire problems for the neighbouring countries.In line with the Readmission Agreement signed between Turkey and the EU, this project especially involves the influx of refugees in our country. Studies on refugees in Turkey have shown that most of them cannot speak Turkish, women and the young fail to integrate into work life, many of those able to carry out qualified labour are not employed in their line of work and are faced with harsh working conditions, women are subjected to sexual abuse, refugees do not know how to access basic amenities such as healthcare, education and trade, and they are unaware of the refugee acts specifying their basic rights and liberties.The fact that refugees do not only aim to relocate to countries with a border to their own, but to further countries necessitates that the issue is treated as an international one and that the countries faced with an influx of refugees implement common policies. Therefore, any resolution towards the refugee crisis should be undertaken at the international level.The first objective of this project is to assess the refugee situation in Turkey at academic level in collaboration with domestic and international partner organisations of different fields of activity. The next objectives are to develop a roadmap to alleviate this crisis and to act on it by developing and offering guidance, as well as disseminating resulting solutions.In total, 7 organisations will be collaborating during this project. The assembled consortium consists of 2 higher-level education organisations for scientific assessment, counseling and training, a rehabilitation centre for shared experience and training of trainers, 2 local public bodies for implementation and valorization of project outcomes, an IT enterprise for software solutions, and an NGO for monitoring and evaluation of the project.Activities and methodology proposed for the project are:1. Project partners in Spain, Netherlands and Turkey will cooperate to prepare documentation aiming for the social integration of the refugees and immigrants. A report on the effects of Middle Eastern and Syrian immigration to Turkey will be drawn up in collaboration. Also the following guides will be prepared:i. Healthcare guide,ii. Legal proceedings guide,iii. Practical language guide, andiv. Cultural adaptation guide.A collection of these guides will be made available as an ICT-based (e-learning) module on the project website.2. Training in Netherlands (Rehabilitation Centre): Project partners will travel to Netherlands to be trained and observe policies and healthcare services in place for immigrants there. The gained knowledge will be instrumental for the preparation process of the guides proposed above.3. Two dissemination seminars will be organised in Antalya and Ankara to present the findings of the collaboration and raise awareness on the refugee crisis.The expected results and impact of the project can be listed as:- Lighter workload for the public bodies and institutions of refugee-hosting countries;- Easier access to healthcare services in line with the exceptional circumstances refugees are in;- Regulations towards protection of refugee rights;- Easier communication and access to migration offices;- Stimulation of legislation and policies aimed at protection of refugees;- Raised awareness for refugees globally;- Employment of qualified workers, particularly women;- Better adaptation of refugees to their surroundings, owing to accurate historical and cultural knowledge of the hosting country;- Easier integration and daily lives of refugees after being taught the important telephone numbers, employee-employer relations, socially accepted norms and behavioural patterns;- Transfer of good practices of actions and policies towards refugees abroad to Turkey, following on-site observations and technical visits in these countries; and- More school-age refugees benefiting from formal and informal education institutions in the hosting country.The long-term impact of this project is expected to be a small but significant contribution towards eliminating refugee crises globally by establishing a publicly available example of a good practice.
National circumstances such as war, political instability, economic difficulties cause many people to leave their countries and relocate to other countries as migrants or refugees. These people, who are then subjected to a different cultural setting, are faced with serious problems prior to, during and after migration. Such problems may be physical, mental, psychological, economic, social and cultural. Among the most serious issues are failure to integrate into the social life of the host country, lack of education and employment for the young, cultural shock due to alienation, refusal of the local population towards the refugees, abuse and harassment of migrant women, etc..In line with the Readmission Agreement signed between Turkey and the EU, this project especially involves the influx of refugees to Turkey. Studies on refugees in this country have shown that most of them cannot speak Turkish, women and the young fail to integrate into work life, many of those able to carry out qualified labour are not employed in their line of work and are faced with harsh working conditions, women are subjected to sexual abuse, refugees do not know how to access basic amenities such as healthcare, education and trade, and they are unaware of the refugee acts specifying their basic rights and liberties.The fact that refugees do not only aim to relocate to countries with a border to their own, but to further countries calls for international collaboration in dealing with these issues. Therefore, any resolution towards the refugee crisis should be undertaken at the international level. The first objective of this project is to assess the refugee situation in Turkey at academic level in collaboration with domestic and international partner organisations of different fields of activity. The next objectives are to develop a roadmap to alleviate this crisis and to act on it by developing and offering guidance, as well as disseminating resulting solutions. In total, 7 organisations collaborated during this project. The assembled consortium consisted of 2 higher-level education organisations for scientific assessment, counseling and training, a rehabilitation centre for shared experience and training of trainers, 2 local public bodies for implementation and valorization of project outcomes, an IT enterprise for software solutions, and an NGO for monitoring and evaluation of the project. Activities and methodology undertook under the project are:Each of the project partners in Spain, Germany and Turkey worked in its own country preparing the documentation aiming for the social integration of the refugees and immigrants. Guides for healthcare, legal proceedings, practical language, cultural adaptation and a report on the effects of the immigration from Middle Eastern to Turkey are prepared by Turkish partners. Guides are reachable on android system phones and an ICT-based module (e-information) on special website. All these outputs and project activities are listed on Project website. 15 researchers from Turkey and 2 researchers from Sevilla had a short-training in Germany (Consultant Centre for Immigrants in Berlin). In addition to training activities, 2nd TPM was organized with the participation of all project partners. All researchers in the scope of the project attended the training where they had the chance to learn about the policies and immigrants-related services provided in city of Berlin, Germany. Knowledge gained through this training was used during preparation of the handbooks previously mentioned as project outputs. 3 dissemination seminars were organised in Antalya with the goal to present the findings of the project collaboration and raise awareness on the refugee and immigration issues. Further, on the International Migrants day 18th December 2018, panels, presentations and festival were organized in Sevilla and Antalya. Finally, more than 3000 booklets were distributed in special places for refugees located in the cities of Kilis and Gaziantep in the southeastern part of Turkey. In the final stage of the project, Report on Effects of the Middle East migration to Turkey was prepared where the most important conceptual and empirical studies were reviewed and interviews with the main stakeholders in Antalya province that interact with migrants were conducted. Results presented the most important effects of migration in Antalya followed by suggestions and implications on how the further integration process should be approached and conceptualized. It is believed that the outputs of the current project will have significant contribution in helping both immigrants to adapt to the conditions of the country they migrated to, as well as to the local community and authorities in their attempts to create a better society where all members will live in the spirit of understanding, respect and harmony.