(Non-state) actors in internal bordering and differential inclusion: Syrian refugees’ housing experience in Turkey

Abstract

Turkey, as the largest refugee-hosting country, provides insights into the externalization of European borders and the internalization of its own borders. Oscillating between open-door and strict-border policies, alongside the political inactiveness of public authorities and CSOs governing Syrian mobility, Turkey reveals crucial dynamics. Focusing on Syrian refugees’ housing in a refugee hub of Izmir, this study unravels internal bordering and explores its rationales and the involvement of non-state actors. Syrian refugees encounter three internal bordering mechanisms affecting their housing inclusion: selective overpricing, ethnic filtering and arbitrary interrogations. These differential inclusion practices, led by market actors (landlords and realtors), ethnic networks, and street-level bureaucrats (mukhtars and municipal officers), are driven by the prevalence of anti-refugee sentiment in Turkey, where Syrians are perceived as unwanted or undeserving. The internal bordering mechanisms are rooted in ethnic, economic, cultural, and security-based rationales, influenced by the personal interests and socio-economic backgrounds of the involved actors.