Examination of Ahıska Turks' after migration adaptation in the context of social work: The case of Bursa-Gürsu district

Ahıska Turks come to Turkey by voluntary migration, outside the scope of the "Law on Admission and Settlement of Ahıska Turks to Turkey" numbered 3835. Since they are outside the scope of this law, they are considered as free immigrants. Ahıska Turks, who are free immigrants, face economic, political and sociocultural adaptation problems after migration. In the social work literature, no study has been found on the adaptation problems of Ahıska Turkic free immigrants after migration. The aim of this research is to eliminate the lack of social work interventions and policies towards Ahıska Turks in the social work literature and to raise awareness by improving advocacy towards Ahıska Turks. In the quantitative part of the research, which was carried out with the mixed research method, a structured questionnaire was applied to 500 Ahiska Turks free immigrants. The hypothesis of the research is that "As the length of stay of the Ahıska Turk free immigrants in the country increases, the integration problem decreases", "Due to the limitations of the Law on the Admission and Settlement of Ahıska Turks in Turkey numbered 3835 free Ahıska Turks immigrants have limited access to social works", and "The fact that Ahıska Turkic free immigrants have a closed society feature prevents them from experiencing adaptation problems after migration". Frequency distributions of Ahıska Turks' adaptation problems were taken using SPSS 26.0 program and hypotheses were tested with chi-square test. In the qualitative part of the study, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 13 officials of institutions and organizations, and the integration problems of Ahıska Turkic free immigrants, the services offered and the problems experienced in the delivery of services were investigated. As a result of the research, it has been seen that the Ahıska Turkic free immigrants, who are outside the law numbered 3835, have economic, political and socio-cultural adaptation problems. In order to solve these adaptation problems, a macro social work approach is required.