Investigation of meaning in life phenomenon in syrian refugees: A phenomenological study

The main purpose of this study is to examine the meaning phenomenon after the painful and traumatic experience in the lives of Syrian refugees who live in Istanbul. In this regard, it is aimed in the study to investigate the refugees' experiences of civil war and being a refugee, their coping mechanisms over these experiences, and meaning and purpose of their lives with these experiences from the perspective of the participants. Interpretive phenomenological analysis method, that is one of the qualitative methods, was used to understand refugees' phenomena of meaning in life and meaning in pain. In this study, following research questions were designed to explore the phenomenon of meaning in life: What kind of meaning do Syrian refugees build after their painful and traumatic experience? What are the main factors that affect the phenomena of meaning in life in Syrian refugees? For this purpose, the participants are comprised of three women and three men who live in Istanbul, between age range of 22-34, and experienced the Syrian Civil War for at least two years. One-time interviews were conducted with each participant, which lasted for an hour on average. The data obtained from the interviews were analyzed by interpretive phenomenological analysis. As a result of the analysis, four top themes have emerged: 'War and refugee experiences', 'coping mechanisms', 'meaning and purpose of life' and 'envisagement of the future'. These emerging themes were discussed in relation to the current literature. Keywords: Phenomenology; Syrian refugees; the meaning of life; trauma