Levels of Acculturation among Syrian University Students in Türkiye

Migration has always provided opportunities and challenges for governments and the receiving societies worldwide. It is a challenge when migrants bring their culture and language, which may conflict with host societies. It is an opportunity, as these migrants bring with them different experiences and skills, which the receiving countries are in great need of. Although Türkiye is home to different groups of immigrants, not much is known about them yet. This study focuses on Syrian university students in Türkiye, discussing their language use, preferences, and attitudes. The goal is to explore their acculturation level after eleven years since the first migration wave reached Türkiye from Syria. The study will adopt a mixed methods approach based on semi-structured interviews and an online survey. A questionnaire will be used to gather data responses from approximately (100) Syrian university students living in different cities in Türkiye, while the interviews will be conducted to collect data from (15) Syrian university students studying at OMU, Samsun, in Türkiye. To that end, the study aims to investigate this phenomenon by addressing the following research questions to what extent have Syrian university students achieved acculturation in the host society and what are the Syrian university students’ perceptions of the role of social media in adapting to the new culture? The expected findings are to show whether or not the Syrian diaspora represents success in their integration with the Turkish host society. In brief, this study aims to explore three aspects of the Syrian university students living in Türkiye. Firstly, it will endeavour to measure the levels of Syrian university students’ acculturation and their attempts to move out from their bonding social capital and bridge with the Turkish social capital. Secondly, we aim elicit information on the participants’ backgrounds and on their achieved acculturation in Turkey, and, finally, to examine the participants’ perceptions of the role of social media in adapting to the new culture.