The impact of education on the integration of Syrian students under temporary protection into Turkey

In 2023, the world has become a global living space where pandemics, wars, natural disasters and forced migrations are experienced, and which is woven with communication and transportation networks. Wars and conflicts of political interest have driven people to forced and mass migration. Deteriorating economic conditions have also triggered individual and transnational migrations, necessitating rethinking the effects of migration in receiving and emigrating settlements. Migration causes changes in many economic, cultural and social areas in both the receiving and migrating regions. The simultaneous change of both spatial and social structure puts the subject of migration in a battle for life that will win by struggling. The migration movement that started with the war in Syria, our border neighbor, in 2011 has resulted in more Syrians entering our country than expected. Overcoming the basic problems such as housing, unemployment and security brought about by forced migration can be fully realized by solving the problems of harmony and integration in the social structure. Considering that the Syrian population that came with migration is close to 2 million young people under the age of 18, the weight of the burden on our education system can be understood. In the first years of migration from Syria to our country, more systematic solutions were proposed to the problems that were eliminated with temporary solutions in the following years and importance was given to language and education studies, which are the key to integration. Education and language teaching will ensure that many social problems are solved as a precursor of integration. The education of Syrian students, which is also supported by United Nations and European Union Projects, continues with the ongoing Supporting the Integration of Syrian Children into the Turkish Education System (PICTES) project. In this study, access to education of Syrian children between the ages of 6-14 under temporary protection, difficulties encountered in the education process, social integration studies and factors affecting integration, attitudes of parents and teachers towards integration, the PİKTES project and project outputs were evaluated.