Abstract:

The forced migration of Syrians to various countries started when the voices that rose in 2011 with the effect of the Arab Spring turned into war after riots. While the number of Syrians who took refuge in Turkey after the war was close to three and a half million in 2017, today this number has reached 3,670,342. Syrian refugees, who were initially perceived as guests with the thought that the war would last for a short time, became permanent as the war continued and the number of arrivals increased year by year. Faced with an unprepared mass migration wave, Turkey has also brought about social adaptation problems in terms of psychological, sociocultural, economic and legal aspects for the Syrians who took refuge. Therefore, in this study, social adaptation is discussed with the perspectives of Syrians coming within the scope of the problems brought by this process. The main purpose of the study is to understand how Syrians in Sakarya have adapted to local people from their perspective in the six years from 2011 to 2017. The scope of the study includes the psychological, socio-cultural, economic and legal dimensions of integration based on the perspectives of immigrant groups involved in the social adaptation of Syrians in Sakarya. Descriptive analysis was used in the study conducted with qualitative research method. Interviews with 10 participants between the ages of 10-44 who spent at least 3 years in Sakarya were made with a semi-structured interview form in ArabicTurkish. As a result of the research, when looking at the adaptation of Syrians with the Sakarya people, they used positive expressions about social harmony in psychological, socio-cultural and legal terms, while the participants stated that they did not feel safe in the economic dimension.

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