Description:
Abstract
Turkey has been a migrant sending country for long years. Since the end of the
1990s, it has become a country of immigration particularly for refugees from war torn
countries such as Iraq and Syria. These people were resettled by the government in so
called satellite cities. Boluas one of those satellite cities that has been culturally
homogeneous and economically well doing city. Differences in socio-economic
situation, language, ethnicity, religion or denomination between refugees and local
people caused different perceptions. The primary focus of our presentation is to discuss
how local people perceive Iraqi and Syrian refugees resident in Bolu. Our main
objective is in particular to answer the question of how local people perceive economic
changes in the city brought by the refugees. As a conceptual framework, we use the
notion of cultural exclusion and inclusion. The idea of inclusion and exclusion work via
the construction of the Other. This way, we create “us” while excluding the “Other” and
we design the Other while shaping us. In this respect, our discussions are based on a
qualitative research. We conducted 44 in-depth, face-to-face interviews with local
Turkish people living in Bolu. The snowball and convenient sampling techniques were
utilized to reach the people.