Legal Consciousness and Syrian Refugees

• In Event: Roundtable: Studies in Law and Sentencing

Abstract

War and massive violence on the global scale has resulted in the displacement of millions of people in the last decade and created a worldwide humanitarian crisis. According to UNHCR, there are 5 million Syrian refugees and almost 3 million of them reside in Turkey. Refugees do not come to the host countries temporarily. Hence, since they are assumed to be permanent residents, it carries a vital importance to study their integration process. An important component of social integration is the system of law since it defines basic rules that govern our social life in different dimensions such as education, family, employment etc. Hence, in this paper, I focus on the question of how transitional refugees in Turkey navigate within the national and international legal systems. In other words, through in-depth interviews, I will explore on their understanding, interpretation and experiences of law, and the power relationships between refugees and law and its institutions. This study contributes to the literature by providing a better understanding of refugees’ interpretation of law, knowledge of law, their interaction with different sub-fields of the legal system such as courts and police, their experiences with legal system and how these experiences shape their legality.

Author

• Aysenur Kurtulus, University at Albany -SUNY