The sociological profile of Syrian refugee children (The case of Elazığ)

The civil war happening in Syria has later turned out to be major human crisis and become a great struggle for humanity globally. Turkey, facing this issue of refugees that affects the world's agenda, has welcomed millions of Syrian refugees into the country. The tragic situations that Syrian refugees experience, and situations of children in particular demonstrate how critical and significant the issue is. Therefore, it is aimed to show the current conditions of children, who are one of the most fragile groups within the refugee group, their problems, daily life practices, the changes and transformations they experience and how their effects are experienced under the identity of refugee and migration. Both witnessing the war and forced migration and their effects are challenging children in many different ways. The refugee children face many problems in the place where they are new but foreign. Among the top of these problems are being deprived of education, language problem, low economic conditions, child labor and integration problems. Study specific, it was tried to reveal what kind of changes occurred in the lives of Syrian children residing in Elazig city center before and after migration. Some of these are the changes and transformations they have experienced in education, housing, socio-economic situation, risks and security problems, social isolation and adaptation. It has been determined that Syrian children are intertwined with problems such as deprivation of educational opportunities, living in low economic conditions, child labor, language problems, marginalization and integration problems after migration. Children's daily life practices are also shaped around these problems. In this respect, within the scope of the study, it is aimed to demonstrate what kind of changes and transformations Syrian refugee children have in their lives during after the forced migration experiences. It is planned to determine the situation of how visibility of Syrian refugee children in the public sphere is shaped under the identity of refugee, its effects on the process of integration and other problems the children face. In this regard, a semi-structured survey form based on qualitative research was conducted with 308 Syrian children, in the age range from 10 to 18, who were determined with convenience sampling technique residing in Elazig province center. To collect data, observations and interview notes including the expressions of children were used, as well. Keywords: Migration, forced migration, Syrian refugee children, risks and problems, daily life practices, integration