A study on social acceptance and psychological integration of migrant perception in public workers

Migration is an ancient sociological phenomenon that affects individuals and society in every aspect. Literal meaning of migration can be defined as relocation of people under the influence of various essential causes such as voluntarily or compulsory, temporarily or permanently and individually or non-individually The reasons of human migration show different characteristics for different parts of history. Migration in primitive ages was mainly influenced by the nature, natural events and disasters. In the modern day, migration happens because of economic, cultural, political and psychological reasons which cause individual or collective migration. The change of location is that within the country or territory is defined as domestic migration, whereas change of location which is aimed to cross the physical borders of a country is defined as external migration. When migration occurs as a result of compelling reasons, it is defined forced migration. The presence of immigrants in another country legally is considered regular migration, while the presence of immigrants in another country illegally is considered as irregular migration. Throughout history, Anatolia has been the scene of immigration movement. Anatolia, which has a central role in the history of the Turks, has been the transition center or the last stop of migration throughout history. Especially, recent historical migration in Balkans which starts from last period of the Ottoman era and continuing after the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey, migrations from Northern Iraq after the Iraq War, migration from Bulgaria and finally the migration flows to Turkey after the civil war in Syria can be given as examples. Migration has an important role in Turkish history due to the geostrategic position of Anatolia and by nomadic national characters of Turks throughout history which resulted with Turkish claim of Anatolia as a motherland. In that regard, migration has become one of the major issues in terms of historical, political, cultural, economic and political perspective in Turkey In this context, the original purpose of this thesis is to reveal the perception and interpretation of migrants and migration, which is a historical, cultural and political matter of Turkey. The thesis is basically composed of two parts. In the first chapter, the conceptual and theoretical framework is explained with literature research. In the second part, empirical study results were analyzed. The survey answers obtained from public employees are analyzed with the evaluation of cross tabulation. The written statements of participants about immigrants were analyzed together with the results of the cross tabulation analysis. In that regard, it is aimed to reveal public employees' perception on social and individual acceptance level of immigrants and their psychological integration. It is particularly important since public employees have an important role in delivering public services to citizens of the country and other people living in the country. The universe of thesis work consists of civil servants working in public institutions in the center of Ardahan. The survey study was conducted on 500 civil servants who are randomly selected samples selected from universe. This study uses both quantitative and qualitative analysis. In the quantitative study, the data obtained from surveys were analyzed with SPSS 22.00 program. In the qualitative analysis, the written answers of questions 32 and 33 in the survey were tabulated with their original replies and it is aimed to explain written statements of the participants. Consequently, it can be said on scope of this study that participants welcome the acceptance of immigrants in Turkey by looking at the mandatory reasons for their migration. However, there is a consensus among participants that the stay of immigrants should be limited until the elimination of the compulsory conditions which led to their migration. This shows that public employees have a temporary migration perspective about immigrants. It may be said that there is a negative perception about social acceptance and psychological integration of immigrants in the specific fields such as working life, cultural integration, citizenship and economic effects of immigrants. Keywords: Social acceptance and psychological integration, immigrant, public worker.