Active Agents, not Passive Victims: How Students with a Syrian Refugee Background in Türkiye Contend with The Challenges they are Faced with

The present work highlights the ways students with a Syrian refugee background contend with the challenges they are faced with in Türkiye, a country which hosts the largest number of refugees globally. While much previous research has described challenges refugees experience, the present work aims to also shed light on the ways refugees respond to these challenges. To do so, we conducted interviews with 10 Syrian university student refugees in Erzurum, Türkiye, first identifying common themes on the challenges participants experienced and then the ways they contended with these challenges. We used reflexive thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke’s (2021) instructions. Overall, the challenges participants described were similar to challenges described in earlier work. Common themes included challenges of migration, language barriers, xenophobia, effects of policies and legal systems and concealing Syrian identity. Regarding the ways they are coping with the adversities they face underlines the contribution of this work. These themes included adapting to new environment as an agentic coping strategy, gaining strength through the challenges, and resistance to difficulties as an active agent. Overall, results highlight the agency individuals show in contending with the challenges they are exposed to.