Syrian refugee policy in Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon: A comparative study

Abstract

Millions of civilians have fled their country since the start of the conflict in Syria in 2011 and the majority of the externally displaced Syrians have sought refuge in neighboring countries. Many of these refugees, who often had to start their lives from the scratch in these host nations, continue to face to a wide range of issues. This thesis aims to investigate the various policies toward Syrian civilians in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, the three countries that are hosting the highest number of refugees. The research assesses the policy responses of these countries in regards to the basic needs and socioeconomic integration of the refugees, such as shelter, food, healthcare, employment, education and social integration. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the nations’ policies and the willingness of the host governments to alleviate the crisis, the thesis gauges the current state of the refugees in each area through a set of indicators and attempts to determine whether contexts of reception in those areas are positive, neutral or negative. The roles the government, local community and international organizations play in assisting the Syrian refugees are scrutinized individually for all three countries. The thesis demonstrates that the policy responses of each country has a lot of room for improvement in order to ameliorate the conditions of the refugees, who are struggling to make ends meet.