This chapter is drawn from an ethnography chronicling the experiences of a group of Syrian young adults enrolled in Turkish universities while under temporary protection status. The author uses excerpts from an in-depth interview with a participant enrolled in Gaziantep University to illustrate different stages that young Syrians go through when entering Turkish tertiary education. These include entering Turkish society, making financial and linguistic preparations for university, a period of struggle upon starting their studies, and a transformation that enables them to achieve academic success and societal participation. There is a strong focus on how individuals navigate challenges such as entrance examinations, language barriers, financial limitations, and discrimination from teachers and peers. The last is emphasized as difficult to overcome: interview excerpts show the importance of perseverance while acknowledging the existence of strong biases against Syrian students. Additionally, the piece explores how volunteering and extracurricular activities can be used to enable societal participation while challenging the negative stereotypes of Syrians prevalent in Turkish society, commenting on the interviewee’s self-image as a mediator. More generally, the author questions the relevance of established conceptualizations of integration, comparing them to the term “belonging” and considers the policy relevance of this distinction.

DOI: 10.5040/9781350452374.0016

ISBN: 978-1-3504-5237-4