Since 2011, civil war in Syria has forced more than 12 million Syrians to leave their homeland. Among them, 6.6 million Syrians were relocated within the country to safer regions while 5 million Syrians sought refuge in neighboring countries such as Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and Iraq. As of February 28, 2017, there are 2,992,762 refugees in Turkey, 2,880,000 of whom are Syrians. As for other neighboring countries, Lebanon hosts 1,011,366 migrants, Iraq – 236,772, Jordan – 659,246 and Egypt – 120,154. Moreover, more than 1 million Syrians have been trying to pass to the Western European countries through legal or illegal ways.
Zhengizkhan Zhanaltay is a deputy director in the Eurasian Research Institute at H.A.Yassawi Kazakh Turkish International University. Zhengizkhan completed his bachelor’s degree at international relations department of KIMEP University in 2010. He completed his master thesis named ‘Oralmans integration into Kazakhstani Society: Turkish Kazakh Case’ in International Relations department of KIMEP University in 2014. His research interests include international migration politics, labor and ethnic migrants social and economic integration into society and remittance.