Activities of non-governmental organizations in Turkey towards Syrian refugees and social cohesion

The number of refugees who migrated from Syria to different countries due to the civil war that started in 2011 has reached 13 million today. The majority of this population lives in Turkey. Today, the number of Syrian refugees under temporary protection in Turkey has been recorded as 3.6 million. Turkey initially applied an open door policy towards Syrian refugees and defined them as "guests" who would return to their homes after the improvement of conditions in Syria. However, in the mean time, as a result of realizing the permanency of Syrian's presence in Turkey, there arose the need for developing policies aiming social cohesion. Refugees, who have started to live within a new society, aside from the problems they have in accessing employment, education and health services, face many problems such as discrimination, exclusion, oppression and even violence. Non-governmental organizations, which closely observe the needs and demands of refugees by working with them in the field, play an important role in identifying and tackling these problems. Within this context, in this study, the role of NGOs in the realization of social cohesion was evaluated. In the thesis, the activities of 12 NGOs working towards Syrian refugees in Turkey and documenting their activities through open-access reports were examined through the perspective of social cohesion. As a result, it is seen that NGO's mostly aim at meeting the basic needs of refugees. Considering the necessity of carrying out activities not only towards the refugees but also towards the population in the receiving country for the realization of social cohesion, it is concluded that the number of NGO activities with a social cohesion perspective is very limited. Keywords: Syrian Refugees, NGOs, Social Cohesion, Migration