The book Understanding the Syrian Refugee Crisis in Turkey: Perspective from Actors by Emrah Atar, a scholar with expertise in migration and urban governance, analyzes the Syrian refugee crisis' influence on Turkey's healthcare and education system. The book draws from research conducted during Atar's doctoral studies, specifically his Ph.D. dissertation titled Impact of Syrian Refugee Crises on Public Services Provision: Perspectives from Urban-Local Governance in Turkey. While the book bears a different title, it is a product of the same fieldwork in his doctoral research. The book highlights the perspectives of various actors involved in managing the Syrian refugee crisis, including policymakers, service providers, and some refugees themselves.
The book has an introduction, four chapters, and a conclusion. The introduction describes the book's objective and research methodology. The book uses qualitative methods, including interviews, focus groups, and secondary data from reports and other publications. The first chapter begins with conceptualization. First, the author briefly overviewed migration theories such as neoclassical economics, new migration economics, dual labor theory, and global system theory. Governance, government, and the public sector were then discussed, with the author arguing that public service is one of the fundamental ways in which governments demonstrate their progress. He also emphasizes that public service supply should be based on a cooperative partnership based on co-governance, meaning finding independent parties to collaborate with the government to provide effective public service.
Chapter two examines Syrian refugee children's schooling in Türkiye. The author explains the situation of the Turkish education system and its openness to everyone, regardless of gender. The author outlines the efforts made by the Turkish government to provide education to Syrian children, including the establishment of language centers, temporary educational centers, vocational training projects, and free education for all Syrian refugees. Despite Turkish efforts, Syrian refugees still struggle in education. Syrian children face language barriers, unpreparedness for school, family, and psychological problems, which decrease the children's integration into the education system and increase their absenteeism from school. In addition, one of Türkiye's domestic issues includes the insufficiency of schools and classrooms before the Syrians came, and the Syrians' arrivals made it even worse, the author contends.
Chapter three examines Syrian refugees' health status and access. The author contends that Syrian refugees in Türkiye can get health services equal to the health services offered to Turkish nationals. Yet, Syrian refugees face health service issues, including language barriers between patients and doctors, the lack of IDs or registration, and the difficulty that Syrians can get healthcare service only in the place where they are registered, unless in an emergency. Another issue discussed is the lack of Syrian-specific equipment and physicians, particularly female ones. Some Syrian women refuse to undergo medical exams conducted by men. Syrian refugees face other issues, including a lack of family planning and untrained doctors for refugee management, insufficient funds for medical purchases, and scarce psychological support for those living outside camps.
Chapter four examines NGOs and civil society's involvement in the refugee crisis. The author underscores that these groups are facilitators, provide services, and help increase community awareness. However, NGOs face challenges such as a lack of funds, difficulties with registration and formalization which takes a long time and includes the possibility of rejection– as well as a lack of strategic planning, limited capacity, and poor coordination and cooperation among NGOs. Competition among NGOs has hampered government-NGO collaboration, making problem-solving difficult. Their lack of communication has caused a misunderstanding regarding who is doing what and where.
The last chapter summarizes the four major chapters of the book, highlighting the findings of the study. The author argues that teaching Turkish to people who do not understand the language is a waste of time and effort. In addition, the attention that Turkish students seek has been neglected as teachers try to educate the refugees, which has led to Turkish families preferring their children not be educated with Syrian children. The author also states that making education a priority remains burdening the Turkish government and diverting budgets from other sectors. The author not only highlights the problem but also recommends building educational capacity including improving institutional capacity, learning, teaching, and training capacity, curriculum development, and strengthening school-family partnerships. Moreover, he highlights that it is necessary to find capacity building in health care, to develop institutions, to conduct more training, to allocate resources efficiently, and also to find partnerships that promote health care. He then suggests that NGOs and civil society must be community-based and open to collaboration and coordination.
This book is truly significant and unique, as it focuses on only two sectors: education and health. The author has used simple and clear language that is straightforward to understand. He explained the concepts and ideas of migration, governance, and capacity building, making it easy for anyone to comprehend, regardless of their field of study. Moreover, he has succeeded in balancing the perspectives of different actors, which means that he has clearly described the government's efforts, the problems faced by Syrians, and the service providers without offending any particular group. Moreover, the author has avoided overemphasizing any particular point, which shows his objectivity and how this information is based on the study he conducted.
One of the criticisms of the book is that the interviewees' statements are not interpreted in detail. There is much more to add or consider from the participants' statements, but the author appears to have avoided critical interpretation. Likewise, for Syrian refugees, the author has generalized too much, implying they are all in the same situation.
In conclusion, this book connects different information and is useful in various fields, not just migration management, but also for health care, psychology, public administration, governance, education development, and even international relations.
