Abstract
This paper empirically investigates the possible relationship between cosmopolitanism and attitudes towards Syrian refugees in Türkiye. Previous research has emphasised that factors determining cosmopolitanism can also influence attitudes towards refugees and immigrants. However, no study has documented evidence of the link between these factors and the attitudes of Turkish people towards Syrian refugees. We use a unique data set covering 1031 individuals born in different provinces of Türkiye. The survey was carried out in Mersin, Adana, Mardin, Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa and Hatay, where a higher number of Syrians reside compared to other provinces of Türkiye. Attitudes towards Syrians are measured by asking their opinion on whether the Turkish government should provide citizenship and welfare benefits to Syrian refugees. Findings show that those with cosmopolitan orientations, people who have been or lived abroad in the past, and individuals who know at least one foreign language and participated in cultural activities while being in another country are more tolerant of refugees. Although government legitimates the refugee issue to the Turkish society within the religious discourse since the beginning of war, religious people are not different in tolerance towards Syrian refugees than non-religious people in Türkiye.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The data used in this publication were collected by the HIPOTEZ Research and Consultancy company based on Istanbul-Türkiye. The data are confidential and cannot be distributed.
Notes
Alewis are frequently misidentified as Shias because they both revere Ali who is a cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam. The main difference between Shias and Alewis is that Shias consider Ali to be the deputy of Muhammad and noble but purely human. Ali, on the other hand, is regarded as ‘embodying the divine’ by Alawis (Gupta, 2013; Shah, 2013).
Kilis is at the top of the rank order of provinces with 98% of the Syrian population. Therefore, we did not implement the survey in Kilis.
Given that we use cross-sectional data, we may have a causal inference problem due to the time-invariant unobservable characteristics at the individual and province levels. Panel data offer the advantage of following the same individual across a period, which is essential since integration is, by its nature, a dynamic process and attitudes towards refugees may evolve in the long term. Therefore, the paper does not claim any causal relationship between related variables due to possible endogeneity problems.
References
Altemeyer, B. (2003). Why do religious fundamentalists tend to be prejudiced? International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 13, 17–28. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327582IJPR1301_03
Altman, D. G. (1991). Practical Statistics for Medical Research (p. 248). Chapman & Hall.
Anderson, J. R. (2018). The prejudice against asylum seekers scale: Presenting the psychometric properties of a new measure of classical and conditional attitudes. The Journal of Social Psychology, 158, 694–710. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2017.1404958
Anderson, J. R., & Antalíková, R. (2014). Framing (implicitly) matters: The role of religion in attitudes toward immigrants and Muslims in Denmark. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 55(6), 593–600. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjop.12161
Appiah, K. A. (2017). Cosmopolitanisms. NYU Press.
Bjarnason, T., Stevenson, C., Shuttleworth, I., & Meckl, M. (2020). Spatial mobility and tolerance towards immigrants: The case of Northern Iceland. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 43(10), 1813–1832. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2019.1667003
Bohman, A., & Hjerm, M. (2014). How the religious context affects the relationship between religiosity and attitudes towards immigration. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 37(6), 937–957. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2012.748210
Bourdieu, P. (1986). The Forms of Capital. In J. G. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education (pp. 241–258). Greenwood.
Bourdieu, P., & Passeron, J. (1977). Reproduction in education, society and culture. Sage.
Brook, S. (2008). Cultural capital and cultural diversity: Some problems in Ghassan Hage's account of cosmopolitan multiculturalism. Journal of Australian Studies, 32(4), 509–520. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443050802471418
Caprara, G. V., Schwartz, S., Capanna, C., Vecchione, M., & Barbaranelli, C. (2006). Personality and politics: Values, traits, and political choice. Political Psychology, 27(1), 128. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2006.00447.x
Carney, D. R., Jost, J. T., Gosling, S. D., & Potter, J. (2008). The secret lives of liberals and conservatives: Personality profiles, interaction styles, and the things they leave behind. Political Psychology, 29(6), 807840. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2008.00668.x
Daengbuppha, J., Hemmington, N., & Wilkes, K. (2006). Using grounded theory to model visitor experiences at heritage sites: Methodological and practical issues. An International Journal.
Delanty, G. (2009). The Cosmopolitan Imagination: The renewal of critical social theory. Cambridge University Press.
Dempster, H., & Hargrave, K. (2017). Understanding public attitudes towards refugees and migrants. Overseas Development Institute & Chatham House. https://www.refugee-economies.org/assets/downloads/Paper_Dempster_and_Hargrave.pdf. Accessed 3 Mar 2023
DGMM (Directorate General of Migration Management Türkiye). 2021. “Distribution of Syrian refugees in the scope of temporary protection by province”. https://en.goc.gov.tr/temporary-protection27. Accessed 3 June 2021
DGMM (Directorate General of Migration Management Türkiye). 2023. “Distribution of Syrian refugees in the scope of temporary protection by province”. https://en.goc.gov.tr/temporary-protection27. Accessed 30 July 2023
DimaggiO, P. (1996). Are art-museum visitors different from other people? The relationship between attendance and social and political attitudes in the United States. Poetics, 24(2–4), 161–180.
Driezen, A., Verschraegen, G., & Clycq, N. (2021). Religion and everyday cosmopolitanism among religious and non-religious urban youth. Current Sociology, 69(6), 785–805. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392120932942
Engel, L. C., & Gibson, H. (2022). Elite making and increasing access to cosmopolitan capital: DC youth experiences in education abroad. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 52(3), 362–379. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2020.1768826
Erdogan, M. M. (2014). Perceptions of Syrians in Turkey. Insight Turkey, 16(4), 65 https://www.insightturkey.com/commentaries/perceptions-of-syrians-in-turkey
Gallego, A., & Pardos-Prado, S. (2014). The big five personality traits and attitudes towards immigrants. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 40(1), 79–99. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2013.826131
Getmansky, A., Sınmazdemir, T., & Zeitzoff, T. (2018). Refugees, xenophobia, and domestic conflict: Evidence from a survey experiment in Turkey. Journal of Peace Research, 55(4), 491–507. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343317748719
Gupta, K. (2013). Turkey’s Alevi Issue: Implications for sectarianism in the region. ORF Commentaries Series, 12, 2013 https://www.orfonline.org/research/turkeys-alevi-issue-implications-for-sectarianism-in-the-region/
Hannerz, U. (1990). Cosmopolitans and Locals in World Culture. Theory, Culture & Society, 7, 237–251. https://doi.org/10.1177/026327690007002014
Haubert, J., & Fussell, E. (2006). Explaining pro-immigrant sentiment in the U.S.: Social class, cosmopolitanism, and perceptions of immigrants. International Migration Review, 40(3), 489–507. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7379.2006.00033.x
Henderson, J. C. (2003). The politics of tourism in Myanmar. Current Issues in Tourism, 6(2), 97–118. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500308667947
IOM. (2015). How the world views migration. International Organization for Migration (IOM) https://publications.iom.int/books/how-world-views-migration
Jackson, J. W., & Poulsen, J. R. (2005). Contact experiences mediate the relationship between five factor model personality traits and ethnic prejudice. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 35(4), 667685. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2005.tb02140.x
Jackson, L. M., & Hunsberger, B. (1999). An intergroup perspective on religion and prejudice. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 38, 509–523. https://doi.org/10.2307/1387609
John, O. P., Robins, R. W., & Pervin, L. A. (Eds.). (2010). Handbook of personality: Theory and research. Guilford Press.
Kang, L. L. (2018). Religious fundamentalism and attitudes toward immigrants and Syrian refugees. (79), ProQuest information & learning, US. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.acu.edu.au/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login. aspx?direct=true&db=psyh&AN=2017-54456-040&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Kendall, G., Woodward, I., & Skrbis, Z. (2009). The sociology of cosmopolitanism: Globalization, identity, culture and government. Springer.
Lazarev, E., & Sharma, K. (2017). Brother or burden: An experiment on reducing prejudice toward Syrian refugees in Turkey. Political Science Research and Methods, 5(2), 201. https://doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2015.57
Mau, S., Mewes, J., & Zimmermann, A. (2008). Cosmopolitan attitudes through transnational social practices? Global Networks, 8(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-0374.2008.00183.x
Moskal, M., & Schweisfurth, M. (2018). Learning, using and exchanging global competence in the context of international postgraduate mobility. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 16(1), 93–105. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2017.1387768
Murad, H., Fleischman, A., Sadetzki, S., Geyer, O., & Freedman, L. S. (2003). Small samples and ordered logistic regression: Does it help to collapse categories of outcome? The American Statistician, 57(3), 155–160.
Nukpezah, J. A. (2017). Creating an immigrant-friendly society-what drives feelings toward immigrants? Journal of Policy Practice, 16(4), 472–492. https://doi.org/10.1080/15588742.2017.1344605
O'rourke, K. H., & Sinnott, R. (2006). The determinants of individual attitudes towards immigration. European Journal of Political Economy, 22(4), 838–861. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2005.10.005
Özden, Ş. (2013). Syrian refugees in Turkey. European University Institute Migration Policy Centre. https://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/29455/MPC-RR2013%2005.pdf?sequence=1. Accessed 08 June 2021
Paas, T., & Halapuu, V. (2012). Attitudes towards immigrants and the integration of ethnically diverse societies. Eastern Journal of European Studies, 3(2) https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=519166
Paredes, C. L. (2021). Is openness in taste directly associated with tolerance? Exploring a relationship between openness in taste in leisure consumption and attitudes toward immigrants. Humanity & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/0160597621993404
Perry, R., Paradies, Y., & Pedersen, A. (2015). Religious ambivalence: Suppression of pro-social attitudes toward asylum seekers by right-wing authoritarianism. The International Journal for The Psychology of Religion, 25, 1–33. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2014.921473
Phillips, C. (2015). Sectarianism and conflict in Syria. Third World Quarterly, 36(2), 357–376. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2015.1015788
Polat, R. K. (2018). Religious solidarity, historical mission and moral superiority: Construction of external and internal ‘others’ in AKP’s discourses on Syrian refugees in Turkey. Critical Discourse Studies, 15(5), 500–516. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2018.1500925
Salazar, N. B. (2010). Tourism and cosmopolitanism: A view from below. International Journal of Tourism Anthropology, 1(1), 55–69. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJTA.2010.036846
Schueth, S., & O’loughlin, J. (2008). Belonging to the world: Cosmopolitanism in geographic contexts. Geoforum, 39(2), 926–941. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2007.10.002
Shah, J. (2013). Evaluating Alevism in Turkey. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 3(2), 263–275 https://yolpedia.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Evaluating-Alevism-in-Turkey.pdf
Shaver, J. H., Troughton, G., Sibley, C. G., & Bulbulia, J. A. (2016). Religion and the unmaking of prejudice toward Muslims: Evidence from a large national sample. PloS one, 11(3). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0150209
Simsek, D. (2021). “Winners and losers of neoliberalism”: The intersection of class and race in the case of Syrian refugees in Turkey. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 44(15), 2816–2835. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2020.1854812
Skrbis, Z., & Woodward, I. (2007). The ambivalence of ordinary cosmopolitanism: Investigating the limits of cosmopolitan openness. The Sociological Review, 55(4), 730–747. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2007.00750.x
Szerszynksi, B., & Urry, J. (2002). Cultures of cosmopolitanism. The Sociological Review, 50, 461–481. https://doi.org/10.1177/003802610205000401
The World Factbook. (2021). Washington (p. 2021). Central Intelligence Agency.
Vertovec, S., & Cohen, R. (2002). Conceiving cosmopolitanism: Theory, context, practice. Oxford University Press.
Weenink, D. (2008). Cosmopolitanism as a form of capital: Parents preparing their children for a globalizing world. Sociology, 42(6), 1089–1106. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038508096935
Weingartner, S., & Rössel, J. (2019). Changing dimensions of cultural consumption? The space of lifestyles in Switzerland from 1976 to 2013. Poetics, 74, 101345. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2015.02.009
Zhang, R. J., Liu, J. H., Cai, H., Mari, S., Qu, X., & Suerdam, A. (2021). How do religiosity and national identity relate to cosmopolitanism? An empirical study using representative samples in Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist societies. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 31(4), 260–275. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2020.1827192
Code Availability
The STATA do files are available upon request from the corresponding author.
Funding
This paper has been produced benefiting from the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action 2236 Co-Funded Brain Circulation Scheme2 (CoCirculation2) of TÜBİTAK (Project No: 119C017), which has been funded under the FP7-PEOPLE-2011-COFUND call of the 7th Framework Programme. The authors are grateful for the financial support received. However, the entire responsibility of the paper belongs to the owners of the paper. The financial support received from the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK) does not mean that the context of the paper is approved in a scientific sense by TÜBİTAK.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Ethics Approval
This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by the authors.
Consent to Participate
Informed consent was sought and required from the participants, and it was arranged by the HIPOTEZ Research and Consultancy company.
Consent for Publication
The authors ensure that the publisher has the authors’ permission to publish the relevant contribution.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Ozdamar, O., Giovanis, E. & Akdede, S.H. Attitudes Towards Syrian Refugees in Türkiye: Does Cosmopolitanism Matter?. Int. Migration & Integration (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-024-01114-3
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-024-01114-3