Abstract:

Civil wars and bloody conflicts that started with the Arab Spring have effected on almost the all countries in the Middle East region and forced the inhabitants to emigrate. These large waves of migration, including Syria, have brought with it the immigration problems. One of these problems related to immigrants is cultural differences, and the identity formation process affected by these differences. The cultural interaction between the Syrian immigrants in Turkish society and the local population is an important issue on Turkey's agenda. This issue is also an important problem to be investigated in social scientific perspective. This study was carried out on the changing religious-cultural life of female immigrants and the changing of the style of clothing as a reflection of the symbolic life style of religious life. Within migration process, Ferace, the traditional outer clothing of Syrian female immigrants, has been replaced by the mantle, which is the local clothes of the women of Kahramanmaras. Apperantly, Turkey’s modern and secular lifestyle, and its political and economic development level has been one of the major factors or a powerful agent in the religious-cultural interaction of Syrian immigrants. In fact, the migration, as an interaction of different cultures, is a starting point of acculturation in terms of migrants and country of destination. It is an experienced reality that migration has positive and negative aspects for both individuals and society. The process of acculturation of Syrian immigrants to Turkey is multi-dimensional. One of the dimensions is their conservative effort of their culture. The other dimension is the fact that their culture cannot be separated from the influence of different ones. This process of interaction forces the immigrants to create a new identity both physically and mentally. In order to examine the physical dimensions of the religious-cultural interaction of immigrants and to understand the way to construct their religious cultural identity, data in this study are obtained by “observations” from female immigrants living in Kahramanmaras city, and “depth interviews” as a technique of qualitative methodology conducted with immigrant female students studying at Kahramanmaras University. The main objective in using a qualitative method is to create a macro perspective with a micro sampling. By expanding the results and the evaluations, it is aimed to explain the meanings of individual actions rather than the quantitative aspect of solutions. As a result of these observations and deep interviews, the immigrants have experienced the adaptation process to the existing culture rather than resisting the socio-cultural structure in which they live, and data show a shift form the “ferace” which it is the local clothes of Syrian married immigrant women to the “long mantle” and “turban” symbolizing the socio-religious culture of Kahramanmaraş as a conservative city. Is this an ‘assimilation’ or ‘adaptation’ process for immigrants? The answer of this question has pointed out that there is a positive interaction towards ‘adaptation’, according to the expression of Safa, an immigrant student at Kahramanmaras University, “We have created a new life”.

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