Davet yoluyla vatandaşlık: Türkiye'nin yükseköğretiminde Türk vatandaşlığına kabul edilen Suriyelilerin örneği

The government in Turkey announced in 2016 the start of a naturalization process targeting Syrians of an added value, including students in higher education. The goal of this research is to understand what drives a Syrian student to accept becoming a citizen of Turkey. The case study utilized a snowballing technique to interview Syrian students in tertiary education. The findings reveal a selective pragmatic reasoning embedded in participants' aim to secure a material benefit in the form of greater mobility within and in-and-out of Turkey. The results are illustrative since other Syrians nominated for Turkish citizenship, but with different socio-economic backgrounds, could forward a separate motive or even decline to become citizens of Turkey. Furthermore, while the government's merit-based approach of naturalizing Syrians might go beyond the ethno-cultural criteria of admission to Turkish citizenship, the policy is ethically controversial for overlooking millions of other Syrians who might be considered unsuitable for naturalization due to possessing lesser human capital.