A Faithful Alliance Between the Civil Society and the State: Actors and Mechanisms of Accommodating Syrian Refugees in Istanbul
| Published date | 01 April 2019 |
| Author | Didem Danış,Dilara Nazlı |
| Date | 01 April 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12495 |
A Faithful Alliance Between the Civil Society
and the State: Actors and Mechanisms of
Accommodating Syrian Refugees in Istanbul
Didem Danısß*and Dilara Nazlı**
ABSTRACT
Reception, hospitality and integration are certainly the main challenges of the contemporary
world, particularly for countries like Turkey which hosts more than 3 million refugees from
Syria. The aim of this article is to analyze the reception practices of civil society organizations
and the nature of these bodies’relationship with state agencies by focusing on Sultanbeyli, a
peripheral district of Istanbul. Based on a fieldwork conducted in this district, we present the
functioning of various state and non-state actors in order to uncover not only the role of
NGOs, but also the nature of the relations between them and the state in terms of governance
of refugee reception in Turkey. We thus argue that the reception of Syrian refugees is under-
taken by a “faithful”alliance between the state and certain NGOs, a partnership where civil
society assumes a supporting role to the state in refugee reception.
INTRODUCTION
“One of the most vital challenges of our time is how to hospitably welcome migrants, the exiled and refu-
gees”writes Heidrun Friese (2010, 324). Reception, hospitality and integration are certainly the main
challenges of the contemporary world, particularly for countries like Turkey which hosts more than 3 mil-
lion refugees from Syria. One of the questions is how hospitality and the reception of newcomers are put
into practice. As Friese puts it, hospitality was conceivedas a “religious and ethical duty”before the emer-
gence of the nation-state. With the development of the state system, political decisions, legal frameworks
and administrative procedures have replaced this religious background and states have become the pri-
mary actor to organize and implement reception policies. This is certainlyvalid for Turkey too, as the state
and its agencies are the primary actors that arrange and regulate the reception of Syrian refugees.
Numerous studieshave analysed in detail the role ofthe state in Turkish refugee and immigration poli-
cies (_
Icßduygu and Aksel, 2013; Kirisßcßi, 2000; _
Icßduygu, 2015). Yet what seems novel in the recent case
of mass arrival of Syrian refugees –besides the provision of temporary protection status –is the very
rapid proliferation of humanitarianorganizations, unlike the earlier “refugee crises”Turkey underwent.
1
Various reports have already mapped the nationwide NGO field and shown thepresence and the role of
civil society organizations in refugee reception (C
ßorabatır and Hassa, 2013; €
Ozden, 2013; Kutlu, 2015;
Mackreath and Sa
gnıcß, 2017; Woods and Kayalı, 2017).
The aim of this article is to analyse the reception practices of civil society organizations and the nat-
ure of these bodies’relationship with state agencies by focusing on Sultanbeyli, a peripheral district of
Istanbul which became visible owing to the abundance of services and activities catered to Syrian
refugees. Based on a fieldwork conducted in this district, we present the functioning of various state
* Sociology Department Galatasaray University, Istanbul
** Sociology Department Middle East Technical University, Ankara
doi: 10.1111/imig.12495
©2018 The Authors
International Migration ©2018 IOM
International Migration Vol. 57 (2) 2019
ISSN 0020-7985Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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