“It has been seven years since we came to Türkiye. We got used to the rules and the culture of the country, which are not so much different than ours, it is just bigger and more complicated. It took some time to get adapted” says Gülsüm Fansa, a shop owner in Sultanbeyli, İstanbul, one of the districts densely populated with Syrians. In the city of Istanbul, there are over a half million Syrians with over 23,000 Syrians, residing in Sultanbeyli district. Gülsüm sells women clothes in a neighbourhood where there are other shops like hers.

The main reason why it takes time for Syrians to adapt to the world of work in Türkiye is due to the rules and regulations of formal work in the country. In order to support sharing of information on formality and registering for formal employment (work permits) and business ownership, the ILO opened a series of information offices throughout Türkiye. One of the nine Information Centres, locally known as BILMER is in Sultanbeyli Municipality. The other BILMERs are established in Gaziantep, Sanliurfa, Konya, Adana, Mersin, Bursa and Hatay and they are all providing support and guidance on private sector formalization processes through in- and off-site consultations to micro, small and medium enterprises like Gülsüm’s in Türkiye.

Gülsüm worked previously as a primary school and Arabic teacher in Syria yet made a new start in Türkiye with her four children. “I opened this shop and did not want to stay in the house, I wanted to work. I met with the consultants of BILMER, they helped me with the procedures to get registered my business. I now feel more secure and adapted to the country, do not afraid anymore the rules and work hard to make my business bigger in the near future” she says. In Syria, formality was not a common status for business as she tells, as “They did not need to, because mostly they were family-owned businesses with no need to retirement or else”. BILMERs raise employers’ awareness of the rules and regulations in the labour market and provide work permit application support, in addition to referrals to training, incentives and employment opportunities.

Emel Danyal, another clothier in the same street with Gülsüm, sells women clothes and beauty products. She first started to sell clothes on her own, from door to door, since she came to Türkiye seven years ago. Eventually she opened her shop one and a half years ago and now is happy. “I have three children. I needed to feed them, could not stay at home not working. At the beginning, people around did not want me to open this shop, because I am a woman. I learned that the rules are different here and have to get registered my sales. I went to Sultanbeyli BILMER, and they showed me how to do it. Now anything, anyone can stop me, I did what I needed to, I feel adapted to this country everyday more”, says Danyal.

BILMER offices provide services within the unions of chambers of tradesmen and craftsmen and via municipalities to support the formalization of both Syrian and Turkish micro-businesses as well as their employees. Sultanbeyli BILMER Coordinator Samet Tekin explains: “At BILMER, together with the career planning and placement centre within the municipality we match employers and employees with face-to-face meetings every single week. We give consultancy to job seekers and visit the informal businesses tirelessly, to provide them adequate information on the formality and listen to their problems”.

Information Centers were established as a part of the project on Promoting Decent Work for Syrians under Temporary Protection and Turkish Citizens and they provide information on the other components of the project: ILO’s Work Based Learning Programme (WBL) and Transition to Formality Programme (KİGEP) . Through the WBL, jobseekers gain access to formal employment and on-the-job training, whereas employers’ benefit from a more qualified workforce. KIGEP, on the other hand, is implemented since 2017 in partnership with Social Security Institution (SSI). This programme supports employers to increase and retain formal employment and provides access to social protection for their Syrian and Turkish workers. The “Promoting Decent Work for Syrians under Temporary Protection and Turkish Citizens” project is funded by the Federal Republic of Germany through KfW Development Bank.

By the end of 2025, 7,500 employers like Gülsüm and Emel and 35,000 workers will have received consultations via BILMERs. Through these consultations, at least 750 businesses and about 1,000 workers will get registered into the formal labour market.