A qualitative research on the Syrian university youth in Istanbul

The main purpose of this research is to analyse the education life and the career, the social life and adjustment processes of Syrian university youth in Istanbul and the future expectations that they have. The thesis consists of 4 main sections. In the first section conceptual framework of migration is formed. In the second section it is focused on previous examples regarding the immigrant identity, relations with the locals, processes of adaptation and acculturation, youth subculture and immigrant youth. In the third section primarily the extant of migration in Turkey and in the world is stated numerically and subsequently the data specific to Syrians in Turkey is being included. In the fourth section which is the main section of the research, the method of this research and the results of the field work are presented. In the research process one of the qualitative research techniques, semi-structured interview technique is used in order to be able to analyze the process which the interviewers are going through. 14 students from 13 different departments and 7 different universities have been interviewed. These students have been posed questions by acting upon the created counsellor interview form, regarding their families, their social lives in Syria and Turkey, their ideas and plans for the future. The generated results and suggestions in accordance with the findinds of this research are presented in the final section. Taking into consideration that most of the immagrant youth researches in literature focuses on the uneducated lower class youngsters, the point which makes this research different than others is the fact that this research focuses on the middle class and upper class university youth which are in the minority proportionately. With the necessity of being an immigrant and with the excitement of youth, most of the interviewees have future plans in their minds as well as the questions which they seek answers to like whether they will be given a place to in the future of Turkey or not and even if they will how they are positioned in the future. Keywords: immigrant, immigration, Syria, youth, subculture, Syrian youth, university youth, Syrians in Istanbul,