Loss of status in the Iranian high skilled refugees: The Van case

In this study, it is aimed to examine the loss of status experienced by highly skilled refugees who cannot do their profession after migration. Status is a person's position in the society. This position is divided into two as granted status and acquired status. According to this definition, while the granted status of the person includes gender, age, ethnicity and religion; the acquired status includes education, profession and titles. İn the study was used qualitive research. Through snowball sampling, in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 high-skilled Iranian refugees, 5 women and 7 men. The interviews were held between May 2019 and September 2019. In this study, high-skilled Iranian refugee participants were found by using a qualitative method and snowball sampling. The main problem of the thesis is how these refugees, who participated in the field study, lost their status together with their job after they came to Van. Iranian high skilled refugees are educated people who emigrated to Turkey for reasons like political, religion, ethnicity and violence. Interviews with high skilled refugees have shown that refugees with a better economic income and a lifestyle in Iran experienced a change in social class together with the loss of profession after immigration. This situation directly affected social status and seen in the health, housing, consumption and daily life experiences of the refugees. İt was observed that the daily life practices and work experiences of Iranian high skilled refugees were realized at different levels. In this scope, the study focused on their process of entering the workforce in Turkey. It was understood that gender, profession, religion, language skills and ethnicity were determining factors at having a place in the labor market with different qualifications. Refugees working in different jobs, working at low wages under unfavorable working conditions in Van indicates that Turkish labor market is not a suitable environment for the refugees for the present or surviving in this environment depends the refugees' personal efforts. At this point, high-skilled immigration policies of Canada and Germany, which include the most highly skilled migrants, were examined, and solutions in terms of their employment were proposed for the high skilled refugees who came to Turkey. Keywords: High- skilled immigrant, İmmigration,Labor, Status