Asylum Regimes and Refugee Experiences of Precarity: The Case of Syrian Refugees in Turkey

Abstract This paper discusses the ways in which restrictive asylum and migration regimes generate conditions that allow multidimensional precarities to flourish and surround lives of asylum seekers and refugees. The study employs the case of Syrian refugees in Turkey for an empirical analysis and draws on qualitative data, including policy analysis and in-depth interviews conducted with 52 Syrian refugees, employers who hire Syrians, humanitarian practitioners, and local authorities in three cities. The findings elucidate that the asylum law that delineates Syrians’ socio-legal status in the country also defines their state of existence and precarity in the economic and social milieus. The multidimensional precarities Syrian refugees face start with the migration journey and continually grow during the settlement experiences of registration, finding housing, accessing social services, and work.