Browsing by Author "Jääskeläinen, Pipsa"

When the Syrian conflict escalated in 2011, millions of Syrians needed to leave the country. Türkiye invited Syrians to the country, and today Türkiye hosts the highest number of displaced people in the world, 3,8 million. Of them, 3,7 million are Syrians. Since non-European citizens cannot receive official refugee status in Türkiye, the country has given Syrians temporary protection status which includes certain rights including a right to education, work, and health care. When the refugee crisis hit Europe in 2015, the European Union started discussions with Türkiye about economic support for refugees if Türkiye tightened its border control. These discussions led to the EU-Türkiye deal in 2015, and in 2016 the European Union’s biggest humanitarian project the Emergency Social Safety Net started. It has aimed to answer to the basic needs of refugees in Türkiye with monthly cash assistance. The programme has supported almost 1,5 million refugees, including more than 1,3 million Syrians under temporary protection. From July 2023, the Emergency Social Safety Net programme was discontinued, but continued as the Social Safety Net programme. This master’s thesis is a qualitative study on how the Emergency Social Safety Net cash assistance programme has managed to support Syrians in Türkiye, especially during a crisis. The usage of cash assistance as a foreign aid has increased during the previous years, especially in refugee contexts, which is why this study is important and timely. The theoretical framework relies on the concept of the humanitarian-development nexus and foreign aid critique. Foreign aid has been criticized for its limited results, which is why there is discussion of an increased need to combine humanitarian and development aid better in the future. The data of the study consists of six semi-structured interviews with professionals working closely with the Syrians under temporary protection receiving cash assistance, conducted during the summer of 2022. In addition, nine Turkish Red Crescent qualitative and quantitative research reports from the COVID-19 pandemic time were analysed. The COVID-19 pandemic period from 2020 to 2022 was chosen as a case example of a crisis because it was raised in discussion in the interviews. The data was analysed with qualitative content analysis. Analysis shows, how informants disagreed on whether the Emergency Social Safety Net supports the integration of Syrians into Turkish society. Some saw the programme as an integration tool whereas some stated that the programme has nothing to do with integration. During the years Syrians have stayed in Türkiye, the migration question has become increasingly politized and questions about Syrians’ status have been in discussion. Syrians want to stay in Türkiye, but in Türkiye, the question is whether it would be possible to send them back to Syria. Even though the programme has managed to support Syrians with their basic needs, it has caused dependency where the recipients cannot sustain themselves without cash assistance. The COVID-19 pandemic made the situation even more challenging despite the additional top-ups provided. During the pandemic, unemployment increased dramatically, and there were severe challenges in attending online school lessons and accessing health care, Syrians needed to increase the usage of negative coping strategies including restricting food consumption, buying less expensive food, buying food on credit, borrowing money, reducing from education and health, and sending children to work. The debt rate increased significantly in households during the pandemic. Despite the challenges, there is an inevitable need to continue cash assistance until the recipients are integrated into society and have the means to fulfil their basic needs without the programme’s support.