ABSTRACT
Placing Turkey's policies into the broader regional context traces the transformation of Syrian refugees from "guests" to potential citizens. This chapter examines the ways in which refugee-related practices are formed in Turkey and negotiated between Turkey and the European Union (EU) by focusing on the interplay of a set of factors from the initial legal ambiguity of refugee status, and the unwillingness of Western countries to admit displaced Syrians. The intersection of attitudes regarding Syrian refugees and perceived EU antipathy towards Turkey created an environment in which the ruling Justice and Democracy Party began to reconsider its international policies and to deal with the impact of its Syrian policy domestically, rather than multilaterally. Thus, pressure from its own population as well as the protracted nature of the Syrian civil war led to the formulation of certain new policies and an increasing tolerance of informal solutions in a range of areas, from labor market to education reform.
