Turkey does not run a refugee integration programme the way Germany or France does. Officials rarely even use the word. The term in law and policy is uyum, usually translated as “harmonization”, and the roughly 2.2 million Syrians still living here hold temporary protection, a status that was never built to lead anywhere permanent.
Integration happens anyway. About a third of Syrians under temporary protection were born in Turkey, according to the Interior Minister (Arab News). In May 2026, Syrians topped the list of foreign investors setting up new companies (Enab Baladi). It happens in classrooms, on building sites and in shared stairwells, often in spite of the paperwork rather than because of it.
Our small team has worked with displaced families in İzmir for over a decade, from the informal settlements around Torbalı to our activity centre in Basmane. This guide explains what integration means in Turkey in 2026, what changed this year, and what it looks like from where we stand. If you are looking for the latest figures, and why sources disagree, we keep those in a separate guide that we update every quarter.
Why Turkey Says “Uyum”, Not Integration
“Integration” suggests people are here to stay. For most of the past fifteen years, Turkish policy assumed the opposite. Early camps were run in a way meant to keep the stay temporary (İstanbul Bilgi University policy brief), and the vocabulary followed.
The legal base is the Law on Foreigners and International Protection, which came into force in April 2014 (Migration Policy Institute). It brought uyum into the system, and the Presidency of Migration Management (PMM) has a Harmonization and Communication Department to carry it out. Yet the law never clearly defines harmonization or sets out what it is supposed to achieve (Ark Yıldırım and Özer Yürür).
Deniz Yükseker, a sociologist at İzmir University of Economics, and her co-author Zafer Çeler argue that the idea of integration reached Turkey through EU migration cooperation and was then reshaped locally into uyum, which still carries assimilationist features (Migration Studies, 2024). In plain terms: the expectation often falls on newcomers to adapt, more than on institutions to adapt to them.
Your Legal Status Decides How Far You Can Go
Turkey signed the 1951 Refugee Convention with a geographical limitation, so full refugee status goes only to people fleeing events in Europe (Chicago Policy Review). Everyone else falls into one of a few categories, and each one opens a different set of doors.
| Status | Who mainly holds it | How many | Does it lead somewhere permanent? |
| Temporary protection | Syrians | 2,202,879 (PMM, 8 Oct 2026, via Hawar News) | No built-in route to long-term residency (Baker Institute) |
| International protection | Afghans, Iraqis, Iranians and others | About 167,000 at the end of 2025 (UNHCR, via Bosphorus News) | Usually a “conditional” status; the system looks to resettlement abroad, which very few get |
| Residence permit | Some Syrians and many other foreigners | 83,392 Syrians (April 2026) | Depends on the permit and its conditions |
| Turkish citizenship | Syrians naturalised while under temporary protection | 238,768 (Interior Ministry, via Daily Sabah) | Yes |
Resettlement is the narrowest door. In the first quarter of 2026, UNHCR submitted 1,264 resettlement applications from the whole of Türkiye (UNHCR, March 2026).
The biggest group, Syrians under temporary protection, may see the rules change again. Officials have discussed moving people from temporary protection to residence permits that depend on housing, work, income and health insurance (North Press, citing Daily Sabah). For how temporary protection and the kimlik work day to day, see our guide to Syrian refugees in Turkey.
How Integration Works in Practice: Work, School, Health and Housing
On paper, people under temporary protection can work, study and see a doctor. In practice, each of those depends on something else going right first. These are the five areas where we see integration move forward or stall.
Work
Work is where integration happens fastest, and where it is most fragile. Under rules introduced in 2016, an employer had to apply for a permit to hire someone under temporary protection. Few did. Turkey issued just over 100,000 permits to Syrians in 2024, while more than a million were estimated to work without contracts (Al-Monitor, citing AIDA).
That changed on 26 June 2026, when the Interior Minister replaced the permit with a work-permit exemption system (Enab Baladi). Some limits remain. People under temporary protection generally cannot make up more than 10% of a workplace’s staff (Türkiye Today).
The families we meet in Torbalı live on day labour and seasonal farm work. A simpler permit helps only if the job on offer is a registered one.
School and Language
Schools are Turkey’s largest integration effort by far. EU-funded programmes have helped more than a million school-aged refugee children into formal education (EU Support to Refugees in Türkiye, June 2026).
The numbers are now going the wrong way. At the start of the 2025–26 school year, refugee enrolment fell 14.1%, from 871,824 to 749,362 students, and the drop was steeper for boys. The same EU brief names economic hardship and child labour as the main obstacles, alongside returns to Syria. In 2025, an average of over 50,000 refugee students per quarter attended Turkish language courses.
Language is the first door. In the camps around Torbalı, many children have never sat in a classroom. Our Back to School programme starts with Turkish, the Latin alphabet, maths and play, then walks families through school enrolment. So far, 400 children have been enrolled this way.
Health
Since 1 January 2026, Syrians under temporary protection may pay contribution fees or the full cost of care, depending on their situation (UNHCR Help Türkiye). People in formal, insured jobs keep full coverage (Syrian Observer).
That links health to work. For a family on informal income, a doctor’s visit can now mean a bill. In Basmane, part of our job is helping parents reach medical care and understand the paperwork involved.
Where You Are Allowed to Live
Integration also depends on where you can register an address. Since July 2022, neighbourhoods where foreigners exceed 20% of residents have been closed to new registrations. By July 2023, 1,169 neighbourhoods in 63 provinces were closed, including parts of İzmir (AIDA).
On top of that, temporary protection services are tied to the province where a person first registered. Families who moved to İzmir for farm work or cheaper rent may find they cannot enrol a child or book a hospital appointment here. These are the families we prioritise.
Living Together
Integration is two-way, and attitudes matter as much as rules. Public opinion in Turkey started out relatively welcoming, then shifted as numbers grew, the war dragged on and the economy weakened (Alparslan, 2025).
Research summarised by AIDA finds that Afghans and Syrians face the most discrimination of any nationalities, but also that a sense of belonging grows the longer people stay (AIDA). Time matters. It is one reason we run weekly programmes rather than one-off visits.
Integration debates in Turkey are mostly about Syrians, but they are not the only newcomers. In Basmane, the families who come to our centre are from many countries. Migrant families from the African continent are often the most isolated, and rarely receive support from other organisations.
What Integration Looks Like From İzmir
National policy decides who gets a kimlik, a school place or a work permit. Our work starts with the people that policy misses.
In İzmir, that means three groups above all: families registered in another province, who cannot use public services here; people with no papers at all; and migrant families from the African continent who rarely reach any support. Nationality or legal status is never a condition for joining our education programmes.
What We Have Learned on the Ground
- Integration cannot start in a cold tent. Before anyone talks about language classes, a family needs food, a stove and a dry place to sleep. Our emergency aid still covers food packages of around 12 kg, hygiene kits, stoves, rain boots and tent waterproofing.
- Paperwork comes before pencils. A child without an active ID in the right province cannot enrol, however ready they are. Enrolment support is part of Back to School, and in Basmane we help families with medical access and residence paperwork.
- The classroom has to come to the child first. Settlements can be far from the nearest school. Our tent and mobile classes get children ready, so their first day at a Turkish school is not their first day in any school.
- Women’s skills change whole households. Through our Solar Age Project, refugee women train as solar technicians, our “Solar Ladies”. We have written about why women’s education changes a whole household and why clean-energy skills matter for a fair transition.
- Women need a safe space to ask questions. Our “Let’s Talk About It” seminars in Basmane give women room to talk about health, hygiene and protection.
[EDITOR: Field note — replace this box before publishing.] Add one real quote (2–3 sentences) from a Basmane or Torbalı team member about a moment when a child or parent “arrived”: a first school day, a first Turkish sentence, a first paid job. Use only with consent, change names, no identifying details.
None of this replaces public services. It is the bridge that gets a family to them.
Integration or Return? The Question Since December 2024
The fall of the Assad government in December 2024 turned integration from a slow policy debate into a decision every Syrian family now faces. Many have gone home. Many more have not, and the government’s own expectations have shifted: Turkey’s 2027 budget proposal cut the projection for Syrian returns in 2026 from 700,000 to 210,000 (Hawar News, citing Cumhuriyet).
The Interior Minister himself described migration as having long-term social and demographic dimensions, not “a temporary population movement” (Arab News). The government has also not ended temporary protection, leaving Syrians to make the choice to return for themselves (Baker Institute).
We do not tell families whether to stay or go. We have written separately about why some families are going back and others are staying. What we can do is make sure skills and schooling travel with people either way. That is the idea behind Back to Home, where Syrian women train in home electricity, solar installation, carpentry and sustainable agriculture, and their children join language, psychosocial and art workshops.
A woman who can wire a house is useful in İzmir and in Aleppo. Integration and return are not opposites when the skills are real.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Turkey Have a Refugee Integration Policy?
Not in the European sense. Turkey works with uyum, or harmonization, under the 2014 Law on Foreigners and International Protection, run by the Presidency of Migration Management. Most Syrians hold temporary protection, which has no built-in route to permanent residence.
What Does “Uyum” Mean?
Uyum means harmony or adaptation. In policy, it describes how newcomers and the host society adjust to each other. Researchers argue that in practice it leans more on newcomers adapting than on institutions changing.
Is Turkey Still Accepting Refugees?
Turkey still hosts one of the largest refugee populations in the world, and people can still apply for international protection. Registration has become harder, though, with Afghans especially affected. The number of Syrians under temporary protection has been falling since 2021.
Why Does Turkey Host So Many Refugees?
Turkey shares a long border with Syria and kept an open-door policy in the early years of the war. Millions crossed, and most settled in cities rather than camps.
Can Refugees in Turkey Become Citizens?
Some have. The Interior Ministry says 238,768 Syrians gained Turkish citizenship while under temporary protection. Temporary protection itself does not lead to citizenship.
Can Refugees Work Legally in Turkey?
Yes. Since June 2026, people under temporary protection use a work-permit exemption instead of an employer-sponsored permit. Most still work informally, and a 10% cap per workplace generally applies.
Why Are Refugees Leaving Turkey?
Mostly because the Assad government fell in December 2024, alongside rising living costs and uncertainty about their status here. Our article on why Syrian refugees are returning looks at this in depth.
Help Integration Happen, One Family at a Time
Policy will keep changing. What a family needs from us stays the same: a teacher who turns up, help with the forms, and skills that last. Imece is a small, grassroots organisation, and imece means a community doing together what no one could do alone.
- Give monthly. Reliable support keeps teachers, classes and training running all year.
- Volunteer in İzmir. Bring your skills to children’s activities in Basmane and Torbalı, or bring your own project.
- Help from home. Knit for children in the camps, or join Imece Germany or Imece France.
