Investigation of the effects of Syrian asylum seekers on agricultural employment: The case of Elmalı district

The civil war that started in Syria in 2011 has killed many people and caused them to leave their country. In 2015, the number of asylum seekers who reached or tried to reach Europe was the largest wave of migration since the Second World War. More than a million people have fled to Europe under the influence of civil war, poverty, terrorism and political repression, especially through the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. 3.3 million Syrian asylum seekers have been accepted under temporary protection in Turkey. Syrian asylum seekers living in Turkey work as temporary or seasonal workers in various sectors such as construction, industry, textile, manufacturing, especially agricultural workers. They also participate in domestic services, peddling, garbage collection, child or elderly caregivers, agricultural workers and shepherds. In the last 10 years, the demand for agricultural workers has increased with the spread of highland greenhouse cultivation in the Elmalı district of Antalya province, which is determined as a research area. However, while farmers used to procure daily wage or seasonal agricultural workers from their own villages or nearby villages, they started to have difficulty in finding agricultural workers over the years. In short, Syrian refugees have been a source of labor in this sense in the field of research. Syrian asylum seekers, who are forbidden to live in the city center, have started to participate in agricultural production activities as foreign labor because they live in rural areas. The aim of this study is to provide a general picture of the current situation of Syrian refugees working in agricultural production in Elmalı district of Antalya province by making demographic and socio-economic analysis and to examine their effects on agricultural employment. With this study, the place of Syrian refugees in agricultural employment was determined. In this context, a face-to-face survey was conducted with Syrian asylum seekers residing in Elmalı district. Snowball sampling method was used to determine the Syrian refugees. Accordingly, 150 Syrian refugees and 50 farmers who employ them were surveyed. Chi-square test and 5-point Likert type scale were used in the analysis of the data. Syrian asylum seekers are divided into 2 groups according to the Male Labor Force Unit (EIB). It was determined that there was a relationship between the 2 groups in terms of education level and desire to receive education on agricultural subjects. In addition, it was determined that 70% of the Syrian refugees lived with their spouses and children, 56.7% were satisfied with their working conditions, 73.3% of them were farming and 80.7% of them lived in rural areas where they came from. 92% of farmers strongly agreed with the proposition "I have difficulty finding local agricultural workers". KEYWORDS: Antalya, Employment, Labour, Asylum Seeker, Agricultural worker