Research Article
BibTex RIS Cite

Orientalist Encounters at School: Security and Inclusion in the Education of Syrian Refugee Children in Istanbul

Year 2023, Issue: 67, 35 - 54, 06.07.2023
https://doi.org/10.26650/JECS2022-1084622

Abstract

After the Syrian crisis, the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey is estimated to be approximately four million. Currently, one of the most significant aspects of the integration process of refugees in Turkey is the education of refugee students. Investigating the process of the co-education of refugee and Turkish citizen students in public schools provides some insight into what the future might hold for these refugees and sheds light on the dynamics of living together with locals. The first aim of this research is to explore the reception of the refugee students by the teachers in order to understand inclusion and/or exclusion mechanisms in education. Second, this study examines the roles that ethno-religious and political identities play in relations between teachers and refugee students by focusing on ethno-religious identity and discrimination. Drawing on the debates on orientalism and securitization in migration, it explicates the ways in which teachers justify their judgments and impressions of the refugee students through orientalist codes. To achieve this, public school teachers from two districts of Istanbul were invited to take part in this ethnographic research which was conducted in 2018.

Thanks

We would like to thank our interlocutors in the field and to Bilge Fırat for reading an earlier draft of the paper.

References

  • Aydin, H, & Kaya, Y. (2017). The educational needs of and barriers faced by Syrian refugee students in Turkey: A qualitative case study. Intercultural Education 28(5), 456-473. google scholar
  • Aydin, H., & Dogan, F. (2019). Teacher attitudes toward the principal of multilingual education: Advancing research on mother-tongue education in Turkey. Journal of Educational Research and Practice, 9(1), 202-223 google scholar
  • Bakić-Hayden, & M. (1995). Nesting orientalisms: The case of former Yugoslavia. Slavic review, 54(4), 917-931. google scholar
  • Baran, T. ve Elçin, M., (2017). Değişen güvenlik yaklaşımları örneğinde Kopenhag Okulu’nun toplumsal güvenlik yaklaşımı. Uluslararası Sosyal Araştırmalar Dergisi, 54(10), 252-259. google scholar
  • Barbero, I. (2012). Orientalising citizenship: The legitimation of immigration regimes in the European Union. Citizenship Studies, 16 (5), 751-768. google scholar
  • Bigo, D. (2002). Security and Immigration: Toward a critique of the governmentality of unease. Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, 27, 63-92. google scholar
  • Bircan, T., & Sunata, U. (2015). Educational assessment of Syrian refugees in Turkey. Migration Letters, 12(3), 226-237. google scholar
  • Bora, T. (2014). Ecyad Kalesi’nden Arap Baharı’na Türkiye’de medyada Arap “fikri” üzerine gözlemler. In İnceoğlu, Y. & Çoban S., (Eds.), Azınlıklar, ötekiler ve medya (pp.304-330). İstanbul: Ayrıntı Yayınları. google scholar
  • Bozdağ, Ç. (2020). Bottom-up nationalism and discrimination on social media: An analysis of the citizenship debate about refugees in Turkey. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 23(5), 712-730. google scholar
  • Buzan B., Waever O., & de Wilde, J. (1998). Security: A new framework for analysis. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Press. google scholar
  • Can, Ş. (2019). Refugee Encounters at the Turkish-Syrian border: Antakya at the crossroads. Oxford: Routledge. google scholar
  • Chatty, D. (2017). Syria: The making and unmaking of a refuge state. Oxford: Oxford University Press. google scholar
  • Çayır, K. (2014). “Biz” kimiz? ders kitaplarında kimlik, yurttaslık, haklar. Istanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yayinlari. google scholar
  • Çayır, K. ve Ceyhan M. G. (2012). Ayrımcılık: Çok boyutlu yaklaşımlar. İstanbul: İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları google scholar
  • Çelik, Ç., & İçduygu, A. (2019). Schools and refugee children: The case of Syrians in Turkey. International Migration, 57(2), 1-15. google scholar
  • Dağtaş, S. (2017). Whose misafirs? negotiating difference along the Turkish-Syrian border. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 49(4), 661-679. google scholar
  • Dayioğlu, M., Kirdar, M. G., & Koç, Ī. (2021). The making of a lost generation: Child labor among Syrian refugees in Turkey. No. 14466, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn. google scholar
  • De Genova, N. (2018). The “migrant crisis” as racial crisis: Do black lives matter in Europe?. Ethnic and racial studies, 41(10), 1765-1782. google scholar
  • Donelli, F. (2018). Syrian refugees in Turkey: A security perspective. New England Journal of Public Policy, 30(2), 1-9. google scholar
  • Eroğlu U., Unutulmaz O. K., & Sirkeci İ. (2017). Turkey’s Syrians: Today and tomorrow. London: Transnational Press. google scholar
  • Erdoğan, M. M. (2020). “Securitization from society” and “social acceptance”: Political party-based approaches in Turkey to Syrian refugees. Uluslararası İlişkiler Dergisi, 17(68), 73-92. google scholar
  • Filibeli, T. E., & Ertuna, C. (2021). Sarcasm beyond hate speech: Facebook comments on Syrian refugees in Turkey. International Journal of Communication, 15(2021), 2236-2259. google scholar
  • Güneş, A. (2013). Belonging by becoming silent: A school ethnography in Gazi neighborhood (MA Thesis). Department of Sociology, Boğaziçi University. google scholar
  • Hammerstad, A. (2014). The rise and decline of a global security actor. Oxford: Oxford University Press. google scholar
  • Huysmans, J. (2006). The Politics of insecurity. Fear, migration and asylum in the EU. London and New York: Routledge. google scholar
  • İçduygu, A., & Aksel, D. B. (2013). Turkish migration policies: A critical historical retrospective perceptions. Journal of International Affairs, 18(3), 167-190. google scholar
  • İçduygu, A., & Aksel, D. B. (2015). Migration realities and state responses: Rethinking international migration policies in Turkey. In S., Ozkul, D., Cubas, M.A. (eds), Social transformation and Migration. Migration, diasporas and citizenship series (pp. 115-131). London: Palgrave Macmillan. google scholar
  • Kahf, M. (1999). Western representation of muslim woman. Austin: University of Texas Press. google scholar
  • Mussarat A. S. (2000). Orientalism revisited in asylum and refugee claims. International Journal of Refugee Law, 12 (1) 7-40. google scholar
  • Mayanthi F., & Giordano C. (2016). Introduction: Refugees and crisis of Europe. Cultural Anthropology. Retrieved from https://culanth.org/fieldsights/introduction-refugees-and-the-crisis-of-europe (accessed 5/8/2018) google scholar
  • Memisoglu, F., & Ilgit, A. (2017). Syrian refugees in Turkey: Multifaceted challenges, diverse players and ambiguous policies. Mediterranean Politics, 22(3), 317-338. google scholar
  • Narlı, N. (2018). Life, connectivity and integration of Syrian refugees in Turkey: Surviving through a smartphone. Questions de communication, 33(1), 269-286. google scholar
  • Özer, Y., Komsuoglu A., & Atesok O. (2017). One common future, two education systems: The case of Syrian children of Istanbul. European Education, 49(2-3),114-132. google scholar
  • Rumelili, B. ve Karadağ S. 2017. Göç ve güvenlik: Eleştirel yaklaşımlar. Toplum Bilim, 140(2017), 69-93. google scholar
  • Sadowski, Y. (1993). The new orientalism and the democracy debate. Middle East Report, 183, 14-40. google scholar
  • Said, E. (1978). Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. New York: Random House. google scholar
  • Saraçoğlu, C., & Bélanger, D. (2019). Loss and xenophobia in the city: Contextualizing anti-Syrian sentiments in Izmir, Turkey. Patterns of Prejudice, 53(4), 363-383. google scholar
  • Sen, A. (2020). Three evils of citizenship education in Turkey: Ethno-religious nationalism, statism and neoliberalism. Critical Studies in Education, 63(3), 1-16. google scholar
  • Sözer, H. (2022). The “European refugee crisis” as the crisis of liberal tolerance: Three Modalities of Liberal Exclusion. Alternatif Politika, 14(2), 229-262. google scholar
  • Stolcke, V. (1995). Talking culture: new boundaries, new rhetorics of exclusion in Europe. Current anthropology, 36(1), 1-24. google scholar
  • Şahin Mencütek, Z. (2019). Refugee governance, state and politics in the middle east. New York: Routledge. google scholar
  • Sülükçü, Y., and Orhan S. (2018). Evaluation of the program regarding PICTES Turkish proficiency and scale development workshop report. Erciyes Journal of Education, 2(2), 59-74. google scholar
  • Taşkın, P., & Erdemli O. (2018). Education for Syrian Refugees: Problems Faced by Teachers in Turkey. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, 75(1), 155-178. google scholar
  • Terzioğlu, A. (2018). The banality of evil and the normalization of the discriminatory discourses against Syrians in Turkey. Anthropology of the Contemporary Middle East and Central Eurasia, 4(2), 34-47. google scholar
  • Toğral Koca, B. (2016). Syrian refugees in Turkey: from “guests” to enemies?. New Perspectives on Turkey, 54, 55-75. google scholar
  • Tongal, Ç. (2015). Intercultural education in Turkey: From the rhetoric of cultural mosaic to the acknowledgement of diversity in classrooms. In Küppers A. & Bozdağ Ç., (Eds.), Doing diversity in education through multilingualism, media and mobility (pp.15-18). Istanbul: Istanbul Policy Center, Sabancı University, Stiftung Mercator Initiative. google scholar
  • Tösten, R., Toprak M., & Kayan S. (2017). An Investigation of Forcibly Migrated Syrian Refugee Students at Turkish Public Schools. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 5(7), 1149-1160. google scholar
  • Uyan-Semerci, P. & Erdogan E. (2018). Who cannot access education? Difficulties of being a student for children from Syria in Turkey. Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies, 13 (1): 30-45. google scholar
  • Üstübici, A. & Ergün, K. (2021). Migration-development-security nexus in the context of the external dimensions of the EU Policies. Ankara Avrupa Çalışmaları Dergisi, 19 (2), 523-552. google scholar
  • Ventura, L. (2016). The “Arab Spring” and orientalist stereotypes: The role of orientalism in the narration of the revolts in the Arab world. Interventions, 19 (2), 282-297. google scholar
  • White, J. (2012). Muslim nationalism and the new Turks. Princeton: Princeton University Press. google scholar
  • Williams, M. C. (2003). Words, images, enemies: Securitization and international politics. International Studies Quarterly, 47(4), 511-531. google scholar
  • Yanasmayan, Z., Üstübici, A., & Kasli, Z. (2019). Under the shadow of civilizationist populist discourses. New Diversities, 21(2), 37-51. google scholar
  • Yıldız, A., & Uzgören E. (2016). Limits to temporary protection: Non-camp Syrian refugees in İzmir, Turkey. Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 16(2) 195-211. google scholar
  • Yonucu, D. (2008). A story of a squatter neighborhood: From the place of the “dangerous classes” to the “place of danger”. Berkeley Journal of Sociology, 52(1), 50–72. google scholar
  • Zaman, T. (2016). A right to neighbourhood: Rethinking islamic narratives and practices of hospitality in a sedentarist world. In Mavelli L., & Wilson E.K (eds.), The refugee crisis and religion: Secularism, security and hospitality in question (pp. 88–96). London and New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. google scholar
Year 2023, Issue: 67, 35 - 54, 06.07.2023
https://doi.org/10.26650/JECS2022-1084622

Abstract

References

  • Aydin, H, & Kaya, Y. (2017). The educational needs of and barriers faced by Syrian refugee students in Turkey: A qualitative case study. Intercultural Education 28(5), 456-473. google scholar
  • Aydin, H., & Dogan, F. (2019). Teacher attitudes toward the principal of multilingual education: Advancing research on mother-tongue education in Turkey. Journal of Educational Research and Practice, 9(1), 202-223 google scholar
  • Bakić-Hayden, & M. (1995). Nesting orientalisms: The case of former Yugoslavia. Slavic review, 54(4), 917-931. google scholar
  • Baran, T. ve Elçin, M., (2017). Değişen güvenlik yaklaşımları örneğinde Kopenhag Okulu’nun toplumsal güvenlik yaklaşımı. Uluslararası Sosyal Araştırmalar Dergisi, 54(10), 252-259. google scholar
  • Barbero, I. (2012). Orientalising citizenship: The legitimation of immigration regimes in the European Union. Citizenship Studies, 16 (5), 751-768. google scholar
  • Bigo, D. (2002). Security and Immigration: Toward a critique of the governmentality of unease. Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, 27, 63-92. google scholar
  • Bircan, T., & Sunata, U. (2015). Educational assessment of Syrian refugees in Turkey. Migration Letters, 12(3), 226-237. google scholar
  • Bora, T. (2014). Ecyad Kalesi’nden Arap Baharı’na Türkiye’de medyada Arap “fikri” üzerine gözlemler. In İnceoğlu, Y. & Çoban S., (Eds.), Azınlıklar, ötekiler ve medya (pp.304-330). İstanbul: Ayrıntı Yayınları. google scholar
  • Bozdağ, Ç. (2020). Bottom-up nationalism and discrimination on social media: An analysis of the citizenship debate about refugees in Turkey. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 23(5), 712-730. google scholar
  • Buzan B., Waever O., & de Wilde, J. (1998). Security: A new framework for analysis. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Press. google scholar
  • Can, Ş. (2019). Refugee Encounters at the Turkish-Syrian border: Antakya at the crossroads. Oxford: Routledge. google scholar
  • Chatty, D. (2017). Syria: The making and unmaking of a refuge state. Oxford: Oxford University Press. google scholar
  • Çayır, K. (2014). “Biz” kimiz? ders kitaplarında kimlik, yurttaslık, haklar. Istanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yayinlari. google scholar
  • Çayır, K. ve Ceyhan M. G. (2012). Ayrımcılık: Çok boyutlu yaklaşımlar. İstanbul: İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları google scholar
  • Çelik, Ç., & İçduygu, A. (2019). Schools and refugee children: The case of Syrians in Turkey. International Migration, 57(2), 1-15. google scholar
  • Dağtaş, S. (2017). Whose misafirs? negotiating difference along the Turkish-Syrian border. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 49(4), 661-679. google scholar
  • Dayioğlu, M., Kirdar, M. G., & Koç, Ī. (2021). The making of a lost generation: Child labor among Syrian refugees in Turkey. No. 14466, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn. google scholar
  • De Genova, N. (2018). The “migrant crisis” as racial crisis: Do black lives matter in Europe?. Ethnic and racial studies, 41(10), 1765-1782. google scholar
  • Donelli, F. (2018). Syrian refugees in Turkey: A security perspective. New England Journal of Public Policy, 30(2), 1-9. google scholar
  • Eroğlu U., Unutulmaz O. K., & Sirkeci İ. (2017). Turkey’s Syrians: Today and tomorrow. London: Transnational Press. google scholar
  • Erdoğan, M. M. (2020). “Securitization from society” and “social acceptance”: Political party-based approaches in Turkey to Syrian refugees. Uluslararası İlişkiler Dergisi, 17(68), 73-92. google scholar
  • Filibeli, T. E., & Ertuna, C. (2021). Sarcasm beyond hate speech: Facebook comments on Syrian refugees in Turkey. International Journal of Communication, 15(2021), 2236-2259. google scholar
  • Güneş, A. (2013). Belonging by becoming silent: A school ethnography in Gazi neighborhood (MA Thesis). Department of Sociology, Boğaziçi University. google scholar
  • Hammerstad, A. (2014). The rise and decline of a global security actor. Oxford: Oxford University Press. google scholar
  • Huysmans, J. (2006). The Politics of insecurity. Fear, migration and asylum in the EU. London and New York: Routledge. google scholar
  • İçduygu, A., & Aksel, D. B. (2013). Turkish migration policies: A critical historical retrospective perceptions. Journal of International Affairs, 18(3), 167-190. google scholar
  • İçduygu, A., & Aksel, D. B. (2015). Migration realities and state responses: Rethinking international migration policies in Turkey. In S., Ozkul, D., Cubas, M.A. (eds), Social transformation and Migration. Migration, diasporas and citizenship series (pp. 115-131). London: Palgrave Macmillan. google scholar
  • Kahf, M. (1999). Western representation of muslim woman. Austin: University of Texas Press. google scholar
  • Mussarat A. S. (2000). Orientalism revisited in asylum and refugee claims. International Journal of Refugee Law, 12 (1) 7-40. google scholar
  • Mayanthi F., & Giordano C. (2016). Introduction: Refugees and crisis of Europe. Cultural Anthropology. Retrieved from https://culanth.org/fieldsights/introduction-refugees-and-the-crisis-of-europe (accessed 5/8/2018) google scholar
  • Memisoglu, F., & Ilgit, A. (2017). Syrian refugees in Turkey: Multifaceted challenges, diverse players and ambiguous policies. Mediterranean Politics, 22(3), 317-338. google scholar
  • Narlı, N. (2018). Life, connectivity and integration of Syrian refugees in Turkey: Surviving through a smartphone. Questions de communication, 33(1), 269-286. google scholar
  • Özer, Y., Komsuoglu A., & Atesok O. (2017). One common future, two education systems: The case of Syrian children of Istanbul. European Education, 49(2-3),114-132. google scholar
  • Rumelili, B. ve Karadağ S. 2017. Göç ve güvenlik: Eleştirel yaklaşımlar. Toplum Bilim, 140(2017), 69-93. google scholar
  • Sadowski, Y. (1993). The new orientalism and the democracy debate. Middle East Report, 183, 14-40. google scholar
  • Said, E. (1978). Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. New York: Random House. google scholar
  • Saraçoğlu, C., & Bélanger, D. (2019). Loss and xenophobia in the city: Contextualizing anti-Syrian sentiments in Izmir, Turkey. Patterns of Prejudice, 53(4), 363-383. google scholar
  • Sen, A. (2020). Three evils of citizenship education in Turkey: Ethno-religious nationalism, statism and neoliberalism. Critical Studies in Education, 63(3), 1-16. google scholar
  • Sözer, H. (2022). The “European refugee crisis” as the crisis of liberal tolerance: Three Modalities of Liberal Exclusion. Alternatif Politika, 14(2), 229-262. google scholar
  • Stolcke, V. (1995). Talking culture: new boundaries, new rhetorics of exclusion in Europe. Current anthropology, 36(1), 1-24. google scholar
  • Şahin Mencütek, Z. (2019). Refugee governance, state and politics in the middle east. New York: Routledge. google scholar
  • Sülükçü, Y., and Orhan S. (2018). Evaluation of the program regarding PICTES Turkish proficiency and scale development workshop report. Erciyes Journal of Education, 2(2), 59-74. google scholar
  • Taşkın, P., & Erdemli O. (2018). Education for Syrian Refugees: Problems Faced by Teachers in Turkey. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, 75(1), 155-178. google scholar
  • Terzioğlu, A. (2018). The banality of evil and the normalization of the discriminatory discourses against Syrians in Turkey. Anthropology of the Contemporary Middle East and Central Eurasia, 4(2), 34-47. google scholar
  • Toğral Koca, B. (2016). Syrian refugees in Turkey: from “guests” to enemies?. New Perspectives on Turkey, 54, 55-75. google scholar
  • Tongal, Ç. (2015). Intercultural education in Turkey: From the rhetoric of cultural mosaic to the acknowledgement of diversity in classrooms. In Küppers A. & Bozdağ Ç., (Eds.), Doing diversity in education through multilingualism, media and mobility (pp.15-18). Istanbul: Istanbul Policy Center, Sabancı University, Stiftung Mercator Initiative. google scholar
  • Tösten, R., Toprak M., & Kayan S. (2017). An Investigation of Forcibly Migrated Syrian Refugee Students at Turkish Public Schools. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 5(7), 1149-1160. google scholar
  • Uyan-Semerci, P. & Erdogan E. (2018). Who cannot access education? Difficulties of being a student for children from Syria in Turkey. Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies, 13 (1): 30-45. google scholar
  • Üstübici, A. & Ergün, K. (2021). Migration-development-security nexus in the context of the external dimensions of the EU Policies. Ankara Avrupa Çalışmaları Dergisi, 19 (2), 523-552. google scholar
  • Ventura, L. (2016). The “Arab Spring” and orientalist stereotypes: The role of orientalism in the narration of the revolts in the Arab world. Interventions, 19 (2), 282-297. google scholar
  • White, J. (2012). Muslim nationalism and the new Turks. Princeton: Princeton University Press. google scholar
  • Williams, M. C. (2003). Words, images, enemies: Securitization and international politics. International Studies Quarterly, 47(4), 511-531. google scholar
  • Yanasmayan, Z., Üstübici, A., & Kasli, Z. (2019). Under the shadow of civilizationist populist discourses. New Diversities, 21(2), 37-51. google scholar
  • Yıldız, A., & Uzgören E. (2016). Limits to temporary protection: Non-camp Syrian refugees in İzmir, Turkey. Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 16(2) 195-211. google scholar
  • Yonucu, D. (2008). A story of a squatter neighborhood: From the place of the “dangerous classes” to the “place of danger”. Berkeley Journal of Sociology, 52(1), 50–72. google scholar
  • Zaman, T. (2016). A right to neighbourhood: Rethinking islamic narratives and practices of hospitality in a sedentarist world. In Mavelli L., & Wilson E.K (eds.), The refugee crisis and religion: Secularism, security and hospitality in question (pp. 88–96). London and New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. google scholar
There are 56 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Anthropology
Journal Section Research Articles
Authors

Şule Can Sayar 0000-0002-2475-1269

Taha Baran 0000-0001-8795-2474

Publication Date July 6, 2023
Submission Date March 8, 2022
Published in Issue Year 2023 Issue: 67

Cite

APA Can Sayar, Ş., & Baran, T. (2023). Orientalist Encounters at School: Security and Inclusion in the Education of Syrian Refugee Children in Istanbul. Journal of Economy Culture and Society(67), 35-54. https://doi.org/10.26650/JECS2022-1084622
AMA Can Sayar Ş, Baran T. Orientalist Encounters at School: Security and Inclusion in the Education of Syrian Refugee Children in Istanbul. Journal of Economy Culture and Society. July 2023;(67):35-54. doi:10.26650/JECS2022-1084622
Chicago Can Sayar, Şule, and Taha Baran. “Orientalist Encounters at School: Security and Inclusion in the Education of Syrian Refugee Children in Istanbul”. Journal of Economy Culture and Society, no. 67 (July 2023): 35-54. https://doi.org/10.26650/JECS2022-1084622.
EndNote Can Sayar Ş, Baran T (July 1, 2023) Orientalist Encounters at School: Security and Inclusion in the Education of Syrian Refugee Children in Istanbul. Journal of Economy Culture and Society 67 35–54.
IEEE Ş. Can Sayar and T. Baran, “Orientalist Encounters at School: Security and Inclusion in the Education of Syrian Refugee Children in Istanbul”, Journal of Economy Culture and Society, no. 67, pp. 35–54, July 2023, doi: 10.26650/JECS2022-1084622.
ISNAD Can Sayar, Şule - Baran, Taha. “Orientalist Encounters at School: Security and Inclusion in the Education of Syrian Refugee Children in Istanbul”. Journal of Economy Culture and Society 67 (July 2023), 35-54. https://doi.org/10.26650/JECS2022-1084622.
JAMA Can Sayar Ş, Baran T. Orientalist Encounters at School: Security and Inclusion in the Education of Syrian Refugee Children in Istanbul. Journal of Economy Culture and Society. 2023;:35–54.
MLA Can Sayar, Şule and Taha Baran. “Orientalist Encounters at School: Security and Inclusion in the Education of Syrian Refugee Children in Istanbul”. Journal of Economy Culture and Society, no. 67, 2023, pp. 35-54, doi:10.26650/JECS2022-1084622.
Vancouver Can Sayar Ş, Baran T. Orientalist Encounters at School: Security and Inclusion in the Education of Syrian Refugee Children in Istanbul. Journal of Economy Culture and Society. 2023(67):35-54.