There is growing recognition that better adaptation and settlement is achieved amongst refugees when they obtain meaningful and humane employment in the host country. However, asylum seekers face significant barriers to not only finding work, but also experience difficulties integrating into the workplace and face discrimination at work. Such discrimination may take the form of ostracism and is likely to lead to decreased identification with the employing organization along with colleagues and supervisors. The current chapter is thus a non-systematic review of the literature on workplace ostracism and calls for immediate discussion on refugee and asylum seekers' work experiences, and how neglect and discriminatory practices may lead to undesirable work outcomes and socio-cultural integration problems.
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The struggle for human rights in the Middle Eastern and North African region, which was ignited by the Arab Spring, turned into a civil war in Syria in 2011. The conflict has caused many Syrians to lose their lives and forced others to seek asylum in nearby countries (Akar & Erdoğdu, 2019). The vast majority of these refugees preferred migrating to Turkey (Öztürk & Timuçin, 2021) both because it is the closest border country to Syria and that it applied an open-door policy (Akar & Erdoğdu, 2019). Since April 2011, the number of Syrian citizens entering Turkey has increased steadily (Öztürk & Timuçin, 2021). As a border neighbor, Turkey, which was most affected by the civil war in Syria, has become the country hosting the largest refugee population in the world today (Alptekin, Ulutaş Akçay & Gündüz Ustabaşı, 2018). United Nations reported that 3.67 million Syrian citizens were officially registered by Turkey (UNHCR, 2021).
The open-door policy has been seen as a “humanitarian discourse” concerning the admission and accommodation of Syrian refugees. “Turkey’s policies have been broadly acclaimed and well-received both domestically and internationally. The open-door policy was neither criticized nor questioned” (Sert & Danış, 2020). “Initially, Syrians were seen as guests because the war would end, and they would return to their own country. But in 2014 they were given temporary protection status. The ‘Temporary Protection Status’ granted to 3.65 million people can be defined as Turkey's way of defining refugee rights based on ambiguity, uncertainty and unpredictable living conditions. At the same time, the European Union made an agreement with Turkey allowing Syrians to stay in Turkey. Thus, Syrian refugees were prevented from going to European countries to seek asylum, which meant, as the crisis in Syria continues, there is neither a return option nor the possibility of resettlement in a safe European country. All this means that Syrian refugees are “now” permanently settling in Turkey” (Sert & Danış, 2020).
To elaborate on the context of Syrian asylum seekers in Turkey and to frame and clarify their status, it is critical to distinguish them from immigrants. As defined in the 1951 Refugee Convention, a refugee is “someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion” (UNHCR, 2022a). According to the UNHCR, a person who seeks asylum “is some- one whose request for sanctuary has yet to be processed” (UNHCR, 2022b). Although there is no internationally accepted legal definition of a migrant (Amnesty International, 2022), most agencies center on framing migrants to be people staying outside their country of origin, who are not asylum-seekers or refugees. Some migrants leave their country because they want to work, study, or join family others feel they must leave because of poverty, political unrest, gang violence, natural disasters or other serious circumstances that exist there. Recent research suggests that refugees and people seeking asylum suffer from educational disadvantages, mental health issues and further marginalization especially after the COVID-19 pandemic (Mupenzi et al., 2020; Rees & Fisher, 2020).
To better frame Syrian asylum-seekers experiences and to reflect on their work-related conditions, it is important to understand the policies with regards to their socio-economic, educational and health conditions in Turkey.