“What doesn’t defeat me makes me stronger” A Qualitative Study drawing on the Perspectives of Syrian Refugee University Students in Turkey

ABSTRACT

Education is one of the most crucial instruments for refugee youth to remove the disadvantages and enhance their social and structural integration into society. However, the unequal education opportunities concerning the barriers avoid the integration of refugee students into society and make them prone to discrimination. This qualitative descriptive design study aimed at describing the experiences of the subjective perspectives of Syrian refugee students about higher education. The participants were final-year undergraduate Syrian refugee students. Data were collected by conducting in-depth semi-structured face-to-face interviews using a pilot-tested interview guide. The researchers followed a systematic data analysis procedure. The themes were finalized once the researchers had reached a consensus. The responses of the students were subsumed under the following three main themes: (1) Being ‘other’, (2) Hopes vs Realities, and (3) What doesn’t defeat me makes me stronger. The participants reported feeling ignored and worthless due to the biases and assumptions of society, which result in stigma and discrimination. Additionally, refugee students revealed that their peers and even educators may sometimes share the same beliefs. However, the study also underlined the value of resilience in shaping the perspectives, even though they faced many challenging experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• Syrian refugee university students
• higher education
• educational experiences
• resilience

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to all participants who agreed to participate voluntarily in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical considerations

This study was conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Ethical approval to conduct this study was obtained from the Ethics Commission of the Hacettepe University (Project number: E-76942594-600 -00 001 418 045), and the necessary permissions were obtained from the universities in which this study was conducted.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

Geolocation information

This research was conducted in Ankara, Turkey. Ankara is the center of Ankara Province and the capital city of Turkey, a country in the westernmost part of the Asian continent. Ankara is located in the north central part of the country and is a part of the region known as the Central Anatolia.

Contribution

Study Design; GÖİ, YSÜÖ and SÇ

Data Collection and Analysis; GÖİ, YSÜÖ, and SÇ

Manuscript Writing; GÖİ, YSÜÖ, and SÇ

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.