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GLC 2020

the Projects

Employability barriers for Syrian refugee women in Turkey

Oxford

Global Mobility and Migration

Syrian refugee women face multiple informal employability barriers in Turkey. In addition to the lack of required education levels and proficiency in Turkish language, difficulty in finding employment and resisting exclusion by natives, Syrian refugee women also have to struggle with striking a balance between their family obligations and work. Consequently, lack of childcare services are not making their situation any better. It is this challenge that the project aims to address.

The Syrian civil war has led to an unprecedented refugee crisis. Out of 6 million refugees, 3.6 million are currently hosted by Turkey. Although Syrian refugees are legally able to obtain employment in Turkey, they still face many informal barriers, particularly women. As per the 2019 Turkish Red Crescent and world programme report, 55% of Syrian refugee women cited lack of available childcare as the main reason for not working. Therefore, apart from the major employability barriers such as lack of required education levels, difficulty in finding an employment, lack of Turkish language skills, Syrian refugee women also struggle with finding a balance between their home obligations and their need to pursue job opportunities. While there are organisations, like Iskur, which help refugees in overcoming challenges related to Turkish language skills and finding employment opportunities, lack of child-care services has not been given much consideration so far. In light of this, our project aims to propose a plan for the establishment of integrated pre-school hubs that are jointly owned operated and serviced by both, Syrian and Turkish communities. We seek the support of a global NGO to fund a pilot in South eastern Turkey. The fund will be required to establish centres, train staff and allow Syrian refugee women an access to subsidised childcare which will be conditioned on their participation in recognised language and skills training programme or being in an employment. This project can generate multiple positive affects; it can mutually benefit and encourage both Turkish and Syrian women in seeking employment and in developing skills, provide employment opportunities to Syrian and Turkish women along with childcare training, expose Syrian children to early childhood education which can help speed up the process of intergenerational integration, provide a communication platform to both Turkish and Syrian communities.

Project  GLC Members 2020

Carolyn

Carolyn

Morris

Livelihood Director

Rohingya Kasih Centre

Saher Ashiq

Saher Ashiq

Ali

MSc in Migration Studies

University of Oxford

Kimberly

Kimberly

Rodriguez

Master in Business Administration (NYU Stern)

British Standards Institution

Solal

Solal

Kapelian

Schwarzman Scholars

Schwarzman Scholars

Michael

Michael

Rees

Master of Public Policy (MPP)

University of Oxford

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