International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences Dec 2015, Vol. 5, No. 12 ISSN: 2222-6990 232 www.hrmars.com Some Reflections on Migration and its Effects on Host Country’s Labour Market: Syrian Refugees in Turkey 1 Fuat MAN Sakarya University, Faculty of Management, Dept. of HRM Esentepe Campus, 54187 Serdivan-Sakarya / TURKEY Email: fuatman@gmail.com DOI: 10.6007/IJARBSS/v5-i12/1946 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v5-i12/1946 Abstract Current civil war in Syria causes a mass population flow both within Syria and from there to out of Syria for a safety reason. Depending on the location of the turmoil in Syria map, Syrian passes the borders either with documented or undocumented. Of course the main destinations are safer neighbour countries. Currently Turkey has become the major host of Syrian refugees and according to the official figures around two million Syrian refugees are living in Turkey. This mass flow has produced so many problems such as living condition, broken families, lack of education for children, poverty and unemployment. This paper intends to make an introduction to the issue of the Syrian refugees in Turkey. Doing that I will present a brief theoretical explanation on why people migrate and then focus on Syria case, Syrian refugees in Turkey and their effects on labour market. Shortly, I can emphasise the lack of adequate data on that issue and the need more researches and data. Keywords: Migration, Syrian Refugees in Turkey, Syrian Civil War Introduction According to a recent research report by ORSAM (Center For Middle Eastern Strategıc Studies) (2015), Turkey hosts more than one and half millions refugees from its south border neighbouring country Syria, because of the on-going civil war that has emerged after the so- called Arab Spring in the Middle East Region. This figure may reach over two million in unofficial publications. According to the government affiliated unit, AFAD (Prime Ministry Disaster & Emergency Management Presidency), more than two hundreds thousands refugees live in refugees camps located at the south provinces. But the rest of the immigrants have scattered often in these south cities and all over the other large cities in Turkey. Official figures on unemployment rates of the cities where the refugees’ camps is located show that during the period of Syrian refugees flow to these cities, the unemployment figures has dramatically risen. For example, while the unemployment rates were 6,2 and 7,3 in 2012 respectively in Şanlıurfa and Diyarbakır, two of the south cities, the figures have risen to 16,3 and 18,7 for these cities. 1 The oral presentation of this paper has been made in the 5th Multidisciplinary Academic Conference in Prague at 16-17 October 2015