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Social Integration of Immigrants: A SWOT Analysis

Article  in  Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences · November 2016

DOI: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.11.006

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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 235 (2016) 110 – 117

12th International Strategic Management Conference, ISMC 2016, 28-30 October 2016, Antalya,
Turkey

Social Integration of Immigrants: A SWOT Analysis

Bahadır Şahin *
Istanbul, Turkey

Abstract

Civil War in Syria created a large scale humanitarian crisis causing a mass human migration up to seven million in total. The
largest neighboring country-Turkey has the greatest number of Syrian refugees exceeding 2.7 million. In the expectation of a
quick resolution for the conflict and sending the immigrants back, the host country has taken only palliative temporary actions.
This study investigates the options that Turkey has for the immigration problem. Elaborating on integration techniques for
immigrants, the paper suggests possible policies for implementation of social integration in the future decades. Based on strategic
management principles, the author presents advantages and disadvantages of integration, maintenance of status quo, and
prevention of immigration.

©©2016
2016The
TheAuthors. Published
Authors. by by
Published Elsevier Ltd.Ltd.
Elsevier This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of ISMC 2016.
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of ISMC 2016.
Keywords: Social Integration; Immigration in Turkey; Illegal Immigrants; Civil War in Syria; Strategic Management; SWOT Analysis

1. Introduction

The civil war broke out in Syria shattered the integrity of public management systems within the Middle East
region. It also worsened the immigration problem of Turkey. Open border policy of Turkish government allowed
approximately three million Syrian nationals and nearby communities into Turkey. Most of them were not defined
as either asylum seekers or legal residents for various reasons mentioned hereinafter, instead; guests. The conflict
was wrongfully estimated to come to a resolution in a couple of months, however; it took four years as of now and it
keeps going (İçduygu, 2015). Young and growing immigrant population will be source of social and economic
problems unless necessary precautions are met. On the other hand, the dynamism of this population may be an
opportunity for the developing country once integrated successfully into the community (Miles and Thränhardt,

* E-mail address: bahadirsahin78@gmail.com

1877-0428 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of ISMC 2016.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.11.006
 Bahadır Şahin / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 235 (2016) 110 – 117 111

1995; Favell, 1998; Massey, Durand, and Malone, 2002; Baubock, Heller, & Zolberg, 1996; Berry, Phinney, Sam,
and Vedder, 2006; Penninx, 2005). Aim of this paper is to provide basis for such integration policies and suggest
implications from similar examples in the world.
The mainland of Turkey, Asia Minor has been no foreigner to immigration throughout the ages. From the
beginning of the history, numerous ethnicities including the Turkic tribes migrated to and from Asia Minor. Located
in the middle of Europe, Asia, and Africa, Anatolia has been in the crossroads of almost all large-scale ancient
migrations. Latest notable migrations occurred before and after the WW1 (İçduygu, 2015; Kirişci, 2007). Some of
Turkish and Greek population went under an exchange in result of peace agreements where Anatolia had to put up
with more than a million people. WW1 also caused a forced emigration of more than a million Armenians due to the
terrorist incidents and ethnic clashes (Kirişçi, 2000). Later in the 1990s, Turkish minorities in Bulgaria and Kurdish
minorities in Iraq totaling another million fled to Turkey seeking refuge after genocide attempts of their leaders.
Social mobility, therefore, is a common event in Anatolia where almost all generations experienced it as migrants or
hosts. Governments tried their best to maintain social order and care for the new and old citizens of the country.
None of those immigrants in the latest century were sent back (Kirişci, 2007; 2000). Although they did not rely on
constant immigration for economic sustainability nor they were ready for that, Turkish governments handled the
crises as well as they could. Sooner or later the migrants were given asylum and citizenship eventually integrating
them into society. However, one should notice that the migrants did have ties with the locals (İçduygu, 2015).
Bulgarian-Turkish or Iraqi-Kurdish people had their relatives in the Anatolian side of the border before the conflicts
arose in their own countries (Kirişçi, 1995). This happens to be the difference between Syrian immigration and
previous waves.
Although Turkey has had an Arab minority usually living in the south-eastern regions closer to Syria, they know
and speak Turkish as the mother tongue, they are loyal and incorporated to Turkish Republic. On a related note, the
city of Hatay has the greatest Arab population. It was an independent sovereign state until 1939 even after the
Turkish Republic was found in 1920. The people of Hatay voted freely and accepted to be annexed by Turkey in
that year. It means that even the Arab minority in Turkey is affiliated with the Turkish Republic for a long time
(Sanjian, 1956). Meanwhile, Turkish and Syrian administrations has had a bumpy relationship since then. The
religion of Islam was the only common point between the nations while the Turkoman minority in Syria was not at
ease all the time. Furthermore, the largest terrorist network in Turkey, PKK has been openly supported by the Syrian
administration since the day it was established (Schulz, 1995). Long-time-hostility eventually turned into enmity
after the civil war broke out in Syria (İçduygu, 2015).
This, undoubtedly, did not have an impact on the immigration policy of the Turkish government in terms of the
individual values or characteristics of the immigrants. Turkey still does not discriminate any Syrian national
immigrants based on ethnic or religious identities. Nonetheless, Turkish stance on the immigration does not
adequately handle the issue, either. Potential of the Syrian immigrants is still an unknown waiting to be discovered.
Registration procedures for them are not yet complete. As one of the largest economies among developing countries,
Turkey should reconsider costs and benefits of integration of these immigrants into employment mechanisms
(Sirkeci, and Martin, 2014; Tolay, 2015). Developing the discussion on subtle incorporation strategies, this article
reviews the scope of the problem.

2. Background of the Problem

Immigration of large scale populations from Syria did not start immediately after the civil war. Arab Spring began in
2011 and some separatist groups revolted against Damascus government in March 2011 (Dabashi, 2012; Ajami,
2012). Almost all stakeholders involving Turkey expected a quick resolution, however the conflict escalated
particularly after the second half of 2013. In the year 2014, five million Syrians were displaced as a result of the
civil war, where 1.5 million of them lived in Turkey. Turkey welcomed the immigrants initially as guests in
expectation of a quick return. The fact that majority of the immigrants shared the dominant religion of Islam in
Turkey was and still is a strong determinant of sympathy and hospitability of Turkish people towards the Syrian
nationals (İçduygu, 2015; Tolay, 2015).
Many terrorist networks continued to gain momentum after 2014. Russian and US involvement deteriorated
the conflict resulting in more displacements and immigrants (Lawson, 2016). As of April 2016, Turkey is estimated
to host around 2.7 million Syrian immigrants (Kupferschmidt, 2016). Only one tenth of them are residence-permit
112 Bahadır Şahin / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 235 (2016) 110 – 117

holders in that they have a regular address and self-afforded health insurance. Considering the other illegal
immigrants living in or transiting through Turkey, almost four percent of the population of Turkey is formed by
illegal immigrants unofficially. There are numerous policies need urgent care for these people on several topics not
limited to education, housing, employment, housing, and crime (Baubock, Heller, & Zolberg, 1996; Berry, Phinney,
Sam, and Vedder, 2006; Favell, 2014; Korkut, 2014).
Unfortunately, this is not the worst part of the problem. Turkey has had immigration since her foundation
but this time the immigrants are different (Kirişci, 2007; Tolay, 2015; Kupferschmidt, 2016). Syrian nationals and
other immigrant mostly composed of Afghanis, Pakistanis, Uzbeks, Iraqis, and people from different African
countries do not speak Turkish. Even though being mostly Muslims, they have distinct beliefs unknown by the local
community. Various customs and traditions might arise social conflicts sometimes. These problems arise social
cleavages among the communities hindering deeper integration (Favell, 2014; Lawson, 2016; Ajami, 2012; Elitok
and Straubhaar, 2011).
Another obstacle for a successful integration is the public policies. Since the decision makers had a thought
that the conflict in Syria will not last long, policies targeting integration of the immigrants were never an option.
Legislations and regulations mainly aimed temporary hosting of the refugees. Refugee camps were established for
hundreds of thousands of people. Nonetheless, this policy failed when camps held people more than a year.
Education, health, and social requirements of the temporary refugees forced them out of camps where some riots
took place. Eventually, allowing the Syrian refugees into the society without proper regulations created even bigger
problems (Tolay, 2015; Kupferschmidt, 2016; İçduygu, 2015; Korkut, 2014).

3. Strategic Planning for Illegal Immigrants

A successful strategy is a realistic one (Teece, Pisano, and Shuen, 1997; Ansoff and McDonnell, 1990). Firstly,
policy makers should note that illegal immigration is a serious issue. Uncontrolled and undocumented people will
create problems varying from criminal activities to social conflicts in time once successful policies not implemented
(Tsitselikis, 2013; Kirişci, 2007; Favell, 1998; Jiménez, 2011). Another trouble for the regulators is that illegal
immigration is unavoidable. The greatest economies in the world including the USA, UK, Canada, Germany,
France, Italy, Spain, Australia, and Japan have been spending enormous resources to stop illegal immigration. Yet, it
does not change the fact that these countries have the greatest illegal immigrant population (Massey, 2005). Turkey
does not have an efficient border control system for a long time especially in the east with Georgia, Iran, Iraq, and
Syria. Even after the war broke out in Syria, the border management is still not in required level (Tolay, 2015).
Considering the failure of developed countries utilizing highly developed and well-funded organizations, it is
mission impossible for Turkey to keep out immigrants by closing or supervising the borders (Elitok and Straubhaar,
2011).
Jimenez (2011) defines five dimensions of integration of immigrants into society. The first step of integration of an
immigrant group is overcoming the language barrier. Communication with the local community is a must for the
interactions between the guests and hosts. Positive relationships are not possible without proper communication
lines. Immigrants, therefore, should learn and speak the local tongue of the country. It is not always easy for the
foreigners to adopt the new language because of various reasons. Lack of adequate institutions or teachers and
reluctance of the host government are the usual reasons. Second level is socioeconomic integration which requires
wide ranges of policies. It can take several decades to implement. Economic status of the immigrants is naturally
low since they left almost everything behind in the source countries. Furthermore, immigrants are usually poor
people travelling with a hope for a better life. They are usually undocumented disallowing them from regularly paid
jobs. Underpaid, non-insured, and facing arrest and deportation constantly, illegal immigrants cannot achieve a
higher socioeconomic level in the society (Carmon, 1996).
The third step-residential integration is a part of socioeconomic status. Immigrants in many host countries live
around together in so-called islands or ghettos. Quality of life is not bright in those neighbourhoods; however, they
are preferred because of low social and enforcement control. Police agencies do not tightly supervise ghettos as
much as they do wealthier ones because protected materials in the latter are more important. Furthermore, because
of low level of police presence, criminals also share the same neighbourhoods. Ghettos, then, automatically become
a safe haven for lower-income-classes including illegal immigrants. As long as the immigrants live together isolated
from the locals, integration policies will fail (Jimenez, 2011; Favell, 2014).
 Bahadır Şahin / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 235 (2016) 110 – 117 113

According to Jimenez (2011) the fourth pillar of the strategic planning is political integration. The first three
principles are the preconditions of political integration which mandates eligibility of immigrants for elections. In
that, immigrants should vote and/or be elected. Undoubtedly, this is the most difficult phase of integration since the
local public and immigrants will take time to be ready for it. From the local people’s perspective, it requires high
level of tolerance to accept a foreigner’s getting elected for a public office. It is even less possible particularly for
the countries in the old world which did not experience expansion via immigration in the last centuries. Immigrants
would not be ready to elect or get elected either unless the previous integration phases such as language proficiency
and legalization of self and family are complete (Favell, 2014; Carmon, 1996; Miles and Thränhardt, 1995).
When all these stages are complete, the final step is social integration. It actually is a phase covering all other
integration steps and the longest one. Minimum time for social integration to take place is one generation. If there
are sociocultural obstacles preventing integration, it could take several generations. In other words, social
integration can occur in from 30 to 300 years. For instance, slavery regulations in the USA hindered social
integration of African-Americans for more than three centuries (Massey, Durand, and Malone, 2002). Hence, social
and cultural values of local people and immigrants should be evaluated carefully before coming up with integration
policies (Favell, 1998; Jiménez, 2011).

4. Strategic Management of Immigrants in Turkey

Having one of the greatest population of immigrants in the region, Turkey faces a great trouble for the future
decades coming (Sirkeci and Martin, 2014; Elitok and Straubhaar, 2011). From the policy analysis perspective
(Meyers, 2000), Turkey has at least three options to handle the issue. The first method is to maintain status quo
which means Turkey should not try any other policies and ignore the immigrants and related problems.
Governments can expect the problem go away when not interfered. However, international experiences tell a
different story (Favell, 2014; Baubock, Heller, and Zolberg, 1996). Current refugee regulations between Turkey and
European Union are renewed almost annually without an agreement while the problem does not abate; instead
greater humanitarian crises arise almost every day in and around Turkish borders. Consequently, status quo for
immigrants do not provide a solution for current and future problems (Meyers, 2000). Moreover, resisting to do
nothing can create new problems (Penninx, 2005).
Policy analysis perspective offers another option where all immigration should be halted at once. Assuming the
borders of Turkey is shut down to stop immigration right now, it is still impossible to send all immigrants to another
country. Deportation of refugees are problematic in many ways; firstly, most of the immigrants do not want to go
back to their origin counties due to threats to their lives. Authoritarian regimes establish government systems against
freedom and human rights, which forces able people out of the country. Another reason is terrorism whether it is
group or state-sponsored. Conflict in Syria is a perfect example of terrorism where many self-interested political
groups and state officials force communities out of their residents (Dabashi, 2012). Without a choice, people
become refugees in those countries where terrorists govern such as Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other locations
in sub-Saharan Africa (Massey, 2005). Turkey has signed many UN conventions allowing non-deportation to
immigrants under discussed conditions (Kirişçi, 2000). To sum up, stopping immigration is not possible in Turkish
soil.
Since both policies do not or will not work, public administrators should evaluate other methods to handle problems
sourced from immigration (Meyers, 2000). Strategic management requires analysis of attributes of the issue in need
of administration (Teece, Pisano, and Shuen, 1997; Ansoff and McDonnell, 1990). Therefore, the study performs a
SWOT analysis for illegal immigration situation in Turkey.

4.1. Strengths

One of the strongest perspectives of this particular case is the strength of the host country itself. Turkey has the
greatest economy and the largest population among her border neighbours. If there is a candidate country in the
region who can integrate this many immigrants into the society, it is Turkey. A powerful member of international
unions including NATO, UN, OSCE, OECD, G-20, and others, Turkey can contribute to the welfare of own citizens
and immigrants at the same time. As a geological bridge between Europe and Asia, Turkey also has the power of
controlling the routes of illegal immigrants trying to reach through Europe (Sirkeci and Martin, 2014). It is no
surprising that recent Turkish governments spent around 10 billion US dollars for the immigrants. Indirect costs and
114 Bahadır Şahin / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 235 (2016) 110 – 117

related expenditures by local and private organizations take up to 20 billion dollars in just three years since the
beginning of the conflict. Turkish officials repeatedly reported that other countries or international organizations
were or little help, if not none (Cetingulec, 2016).
Another strength that stakeholders of the issue is the religious ties. Although different sects of Islam are common
among the illegal immigrants, they are mostly Sunni Muslims similar to the Turkish community. Emphasizing unity
of religion policy makers can bring local and immigrant communities together (Tolay, 2015). Hospitability is one
the strong sides of Turkish community. It can be manipulated through religion to generate social integration.
However, it should be noted that any integration policy necessitates language and socioeconomic integration.
Therefore, in order to reveal the strengths of immigration, public administration organizations should provide legal
identities for the immigrants and register them within a system. Language courses should be accessible and
affordable for any foreigners. Strong economy and hospitable locals would turn the tide when accompanied by
correct policies (Carmon, 1996; Tsitselikis, 2013; Favell, 2014).

4.2. Opportunities

Illegal immigrants mainly offer human resources to the host governments (Portes, 1994). Immigrants would like to
earn a decent life just like anybody else. This is why only 10 percent of Syrian immigrants live in the camps built for
them. They would like to work and get good education for themselves and their kids (Cetingulec, 2016; Carmon,
1996). Table 1 demonstrates age data for 2.7 million Syrian immigrants. 50 percent of them are under 19 while 85
percent of Syrian nationals in Turkey are younger than 40. It means that Turkey hosts an immigrant population as
highly dynamic and young as it can be.

Table 1. Syrian Nationals Registered by Finger Prints

Age Male % Cumulative % Female % Cumulative % Total % Cumulative %
0-4 187838 12.84% 12.84% 175358 13.64% 13.64% 363196 13.21% 13.21%
5-9 198514 13.57% 26.41% 187613 14.60% 28.24% 386127 14.05% 27.26%
10-14 151451 10.35% 36.76% 138657 10.79% 39.03% 290108 10.56% 37.82%
15-19 172495 11.79% 48.55% 143392 11.16% 50.18% 315887 11.49% 49.31%
20-24 181330 12.39% 60.94% 143415 11.16% 61.34% 324745 11.82% 61.13%
25-29 148559 10.15% 71.10% 115816 9.01% 70.35% 264375 9.62% 70.75%
30-34 121336 8.29% 79.39% 97078 7.55% 77.90% 218414 7.95% 78.70%
35-39 86922 5.94% 85.33% 74266 5.78% 83.68% 161188 5.86% 84.56%
40-44 59999 4.10% 89.43% 56615 4.40% 88.09% 116614 4.24% 88.80%
45-49 48386 3.31% 92.74% 44555 3.47% 91.55% 92941 3.38% 92.19%
50-54 37740 2.58% 95.32% 36483 2.84% 94.39% 74223 2.70% 94.89%
55-59 25500 1.74% 97.06% 25634 1.99% 96.39% 51134 1.86% 96.75%
60-64 17715 1.21% 98.27% 18268 1.42% 97.81% 35983 1.31% 98.06%
65-69 11514 0.79% 99.06% 11871 0.92% 98.73% 23385 0.85% 98.91%
70-74 6251 0.43% 99.49% 7203 0.56% 99.29% 13454 0.49% 99.40%
75-79 3841 0.26% 99.75% 4588 0.36% 99.65% 8429 0.31% 99.70%
80-84 2067 0.14% 99.89% 2612 0.20% 99.85% 4679 0.17% 99.87%
85-89 1121 0.08% 99.97% 1285 0.10% 99.95% 2406 0.09% 99.96%
90+ 459 0.03% 100.00% 620 0.05% 100.00% 1079 0.04% 100.00%
Total 1463038 100% 1285329 100% 2748367 100%

Many refugees are only kids in need of proper education. Since reports on the conflict in Syria estimate at least
another 30-year-war (Kahan, 2016), this young population will get old in Turkey or any other host country.
Language and socioeconomic integration could turn these immigrants into a valuable asset (Portes, 1994). Greatest
economies such as Germany, USA, Canada, and Australia have been enjoying great numbers of immigrants for a big
part of the workforce. Interestingly, Germany has the largest Turkish population in the world only after the Turkish
Republic due to a planned immigration just after the WW2.
Nonetheless, high level of immigration does not automatically build up a great economy. The youngest populations
in the world take place in the African continent where the poverty is also high. Hence, in order to utilize strength of
the immigrant population in Turkey, preliminary integration efforts should be upheld. Moreover, it should be
noticed that almost 40 percent of Syrian nationals are younger than 14. Children population is so high that social
integration can occur within just one generation provided that policies target it starting immediately. Second
generations of immigrants in Europe and Americas usually experience social integration. Integrated kids of the first
 Bahadır Şahin / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 235 (2016) 110 – 117 115

generation immigrant parents grease the way for further integration (Favell, 1998). Having bilingual kids lead the
first generation immigrants to develop language proficiency and socioeconomic integration (Carmon, 1996).

4.3. Weaknesses

A great majority of immigrants are living under poverty line. It does not necessarily mean that they were poor for
their whole lives before being immigrants either. Since many of them could not take most of their belongings due to
the emergence of the conflict, immigrants left their assets in the source countries. Syrian nationals in Turkey usually
lived immediately across the Turkish borders and those cities are in ruins now. Home and workplace owners have
lost them. Immigration of Syrians and Iraqis is different from this perspective where other nationalities generally are
in Turkey because of employment opportunities or travelling to bordering European Union countries (İçduygu,
2015).
Increase in the rate of population living under poverty is not a good indicator for the economy in a developing
country. Weak and unstable economies trigger social tensions eventually (Jiménez, 2011; Massey, Durand, and
Malone, 2002). As a matter of fact, the main reason of the civil wars in Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Egypt
is bad condition of domestic economies. According to this perspective, poverty eradicates the social agreement and
cohesion and generates conflicts and even civil wars. Therefore, policies evaluating the low socioeconomic level of
immigrants should consider the difference among different nationalities in Turkey. Immigrants of humanitarian
crises and others have different motivations. Poverty due to immigration, then, should be handled with different
policies (Meyers, 2000).
Syrian Nationals in Turkey belonged mostly in the middle income group back in the day in Syria before the war. It
means although they are poor now because of loss of property and related income generators, they can achieve a
similar socioeconomic level once required conditions provided (Portes, 1994). The other group of immigrants who
are not here in Turkey due to a humanitarian crisis should be evaluated differently by the integration policies. Those
people were poor in their source countries as well, therefore, they need further employment strategies accompanied
by the basic integration tools. Treating all immigrants under similar policies will result in inefficiencies (Penninx,
2005).

4.4. Threats

Immigration is not independent from national and even international threats. This is why many European and
American countries trying to avoid illegal immigration. Governments tried to stop immigration of others since the
beginning of the time (Massey, 2005). China Wall is an example of efforts built for the prevention of invasions and
immigration of large groups. Many other civilizations in the history built and fortified walls to stop large human
migrations. Building fortified walls is still an anti-immigration tactic in use in many countries including USA, Israel,
India, China, Russia, Korea, Turkey, and many others. Proposed border walls more than double the current amount.
Illegal immigration regarded as one of the greatest threat to the unity of governments (Carmon, 1996).
Human migrations have ended many empires and governments in the history. Famous Turkic and Germanic
migrations occurred around the 6th century shaped empires and states in the regions from China in the East to
Middle East and North Africa in the south and from Scandinavia and UK in the north to Spain in the West. Ancient
migrations took place as invasions of nomadic tribes. After the industrial revolution, human migrations changed in
nature where the aim of individual immigrants was to survive in a more suitable environment (Carmon, 1996;
Favell, 2014). In other words, present human migrations are less detrimental for the states than the ones in the
history.
Illegal immigration is avoided firstly because of unclear characteristics. Illegal immigrants are usually
undocumented, undetected by official government policies, and unknown in size. There are only estimations on
information about illegal immigrants even in the most developed countries. When not documented and ignored,
illegal immigrants are threats to the society since they and their actions cannot be foreseen (Tsitselikis, 2013; Sirkeci
and Martin, 2014). Even though a minor portion of illegal immigrants deal with criminal activities, it is still a greater
danger for the society because of familiarity of the law enforcement with the local criminals. To put it differently,
police agencies can combat crimes before and after the felonies easier when the local offenders are registered in
governmental databases. Illegal immigrants, on the other hand, are unseen by those agencies, which make it easier to
get away with offences.
116 Bahadır Şahin / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 235 (2016) 110 – 117

Unfortunately, this assumption is valid for all criminal activities including terrorism. Greatest threat from the Syrian
nationals and other Muslim illegal immigrants is possible ties of them with terrorist groups (Lawson, 2016). Up to
now, Turkish Government issued entry bans approximately for 40.000 foreigners mostly because of ISIS related
activities. Main terrorist networks taking role in Syrian conflict are ISIS, PKK (YPG), Al Nusra (Al Qaeda affiliate),
and Hezbollah. Some Syrian nationals in Turkey could be related with any of them. In fact, several recent terrorist
attacks and bombings in Turkey were perpetrated by Syrian immigrants (Kahan, 2016). In consequence, registration
of all immigrants is of great importance.
Socioeconomic condition of the immigrants poses a great threat unless treated with comprehensive policies.
Research finds out that immigrants in Turkey are mostly young, unemployed, unskilled for labourbbbbb, and
segregated by regulations. Criminal groups and terrorist networks could easily prey upon young refugees. Amidst
uncertainty, Turkish governments consider the situation of refugees as a temporary one and are reluctant to take
precautions targeting integration of those communities (İçduygu, 2015). However, unwillingness to provide rights
for immigrants that could flourish social integration could pave the way for illegal crime groups.

5. Discussion and Results

Considering the strengths and threats together, similar points could be evaluated under the very same headlines.
Immigrant population has a great potential; if the governments spend adequate time and resources to prepare it then
it is not different than any other economy-boosting policy tools. However, if the policy makers ignore the
immigrants and let the time resolve the problem, there could be a decay where the society including the immigrants
and locals could pay for the social cost. The cost could be an economic crisis or a failed state apparatus. It is up to
the governments to select a policy among the discussed three options in the paper.
Maintaining status quo or prevention of immigration are two policies (Meyers, 2000) that the study considers
unlikely to happen. Immigration has been assessed stoppable by many present and past administration systems
worldwide via use of walls, enforcement, and other tools. Nonetheless, even minimization of immigration was not
possible where such efforts hardly achieved success against smuggling activities (Massey, 2005). Walls or strict
immigration laws will only help refugees to go underground. Ignoring the problem and maintenance of current
situation generates a threat to the community since illegal crime networks will benefit out of the situation. The youth
has a potential to be one of the strongest suits of a country in the future but if unaccompanied they are in a danger
which can affect them and the society around them (Kahan, 2016; Elitok and Straubhaar, 2011).
On the other hand, integration should not necessarily end up with automatic citizenship rights for the all immigrants.
There is no country in the world providing unconditional citizenship for ordinary immigrants, let alone asylum
seekers. Integration should have citizenship right as the latest step of the conditions that an immigrant must fulfil
over years. Education, employment, staying out of criminal activities, and an impression for a future personal decent
life are the general requirements for citizenship in many developing countries, which can be an integration model for
Turkey. Automatically guaranteed citizenship rights lacking a immigrants’ motivation for integration could lead to
greater immigration waves from not only Syria but all other under-developed countries in Asia and Africa.
This article suggests that generating policies targeting social integration should be the way to go for an efficient and
running public administration system. There is not a clear and single guideline to make it happen for every country.
Instead, each management including the local branches should embrace individual arrangements targeting social
integration. Steps involving language, socioeconomic, political, and residential integration should be designed
carefully. Assuming that a social integration policy could take several generations to go in effect, public should be
informed regularly about the advancements and possible policy outcomes in the future. A successful social
integration in Turkey including possible immigrant stakeholders will be the leading force in economy and social life
in the next decades.

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