Social cohesion in forced migration: an attempt to operationalize social cohesion for syrians under temporary protection in Turkey

Forced migration of Syrians facilitated unique progresses and exceptional changes in Turkey when previous experience with inward forced migration movements to Turkey are taken into account. Syrians' en masse registration under Temporary Protection was in compliant with the protection assurances of 1951 Convention and 1960 Protocol, albeit being a situation where reservations could apply. As a country of asylum, it was the first time when Turkey decided to mobilize Local Integration as a solution for a forced migration situation rather than resettlement or voluntary repatriation. Turkey reformulated Local Integration as Harmonization which necessitates interaction of forced migrant and host communities as well as the host country. While doing so, Harmonization explicitly segregated from the commonly accepted notions of assimilation and integration, while at the same time the concept is affiliated as an end state to be achieved. In order to do so, social cohesion, which is the faculty of intergroup interactions, identified as a medium for achieving Hannonization. However, the identification was merely the beginning ofthe process. Despite literature saturated with works on social cohesion, there are very few works on its relationship with forced migration. Therefore, attested to the unique and exceptional disposition of Syıians in Turkey as well as being an on-going forced migration situation, this study aims to investigate how social cohesion can be defined, how the definition can be applied in this situation, and what are the plausible dimensions and parameters for operationalizing social cohesion in order to achieve Harmonization as the intended outcome. Keywords: Syrians under Temporary Protection in Turkey, intergroup interactions, social cohesion, forced ınigration, operationalization