How do refugees decide on their future home?: A qualitative analysis of return decision of Syrians in Turkey

This thesis offers an explanation to the question of how refugees decide about their future life aspirations regarding their residency. Some refugees return to their home country, while others stay in the host country, or resettle in a third country. This study tries to understand which factors would increase the likelihood of return and which factors courage refugees to stay in the host country. Expanding the capital accumulation theories that are mostly centered around labor migrants to the conditions of refugees, this thesis provides a model for the process of evaluation before a decision to return, stay or resettle. According to this model, refugees decide on one of three future options after comparing the social, economic, and human capital they accumulated in the host country with the capital they would have after a possible return to their home country or future resettlement in a third country. They tend to choose the option in which they would acquire more social, economic, and human capital. Qualitative data from 40 in-depth interviews with Syrian refugees in Istanbul and Konya was gathered to see if the real cases of decision-making processes of Syrian refugees are compatible with the expectations of this research. As some examples of the social, economic, and human capital accumulation of refugees, developing new social relations, attaining an educational program, and having a stable, fairly paid job in the host country have a negative effect on return; while developing no or few social relations, having no or little education/ not being able to get educational degrees accredited, being unemployed/having an unstable underpaid job in the host country, and still having a home and source of income in the home country have a positive effect on the decision to return of refugees.