According to the Directorate General of Migration Management (DGMM) figures in 2017, %61 of the Syrians in Turkey are at working age. Yet, the statistics demonstrate that their access to legal labor market is limited. Despite the Regulation on Work Permits of Foreigners under Temporary Protection issued in January 2016 and the preparation of legal ground for Syrians’ access to labor market was realized, the number of Syrians who have been granted work permit was only 20.970 in 2017. In this context, projects that will reduce Syrians’ dependence on informal labor market and on outright cash assistance schemes such as ESSN (Kızılay Kart) gain importance.
The implementation of projects that encourage Syrians’ legal access to labor market is necessary especially for highly populated cities. According to the DGMM figures as of August 2018, the province that hosts the largest Syrian population is Istanbul with approximately half million Syrians. %3,5 of this population lives in Sultanbeyli district. This ratio corresponds to %6 of the total population of Sultanbeyli.
Joint projects that are implemented by local governments and NGOs in promoting the employment and social harmony of the Syrians who have such high population ratio in Sultanbeyli are striking. Among these projects, the ongoing Cash for Work Project comes to the fore. The project is jointly conducted by the Municipality of Sultanbeyli and International Blue Crescent Relief and Development Foundation. Within the scope of this project, in
Sultanbeyli 246 Syrians and 238 Turkish beneficiaries have been employed in total since the beginning of the project in December 2017. The project contributed to the Syrians’employment with work permit in different units of the municipalities, hence their access to the legal labor market as well as to their social integration processes as they work together with Turkish citizens.
Facts and figures
- In total, 96.000 m² in-door area was cleaned.
- A total of 2900 county resident people provided with hot meal.
- In total, 500 m² of public area was painted.
- In total, 828.000 m² out-door area was cleaned
- More than 400 pupils were given language courses.
- More than 3000 Syrians were provided/served interpreting/translation services by the CfW beneficiaries.
- Mosques and Cemevi of Sultanbeyli were cleaned.
