Outlook of Employers and Workers in Şanlıurfa to the Employment of Syrians
A field research has been carried out in cooperation with ILO Office for Turkey, Harran University and Karacadağ Development Agency in order to analyze the outlook of employers and workers to the employment of Syrians in Şanlurfa.
The field research entitled “Outlook of Employers and Workers in Şanlıurfa to the Employment of Syrians” analyzed the status of Turkish employers in terms of sectors, enterprise scale (size) and labour market expectations and the attitude of Turkish employers towards the labour force participation of Syrians, investigated employment possibilities and developed recommendations on the Syrian community in Şanlıurfa.
The research also aimed to explore the attitude of local workers towards the employment of Syrians by conducting questionnaires and to reveal the overall working conditions and environment from the workers’ point of view.
Main findings of the research are as follows;
27% of the businesses surveyed employ Syrians; and this corresponds to 3.2% of their total employment. 77% of the working Syrians are men, while 23% are women.
More than half of the Syrians are employed in the manufacturing sector (51%), followed by services (33%) and agriculture (10%).
One third of the Syrians (33%) are earning below the minimum wage.
60% employers mention that they can employ Syrians if there is a need, while 64% says they can employ if there is a State support. 32% says they would never employ Syrians.
41% of the employers believe that work permits should be issued for the Syrians, and same percentage say that the State should support employment of Syrians.
While the employers have a positive view for employing the Syrians, language problems is cited as the biggest obstacle (50%), followed by social adaptation (32%) and work permits (24%).
