The Role of Syrian Refugees in Capitalist Relations of Production: The Case of Sanliurfa

Immigration has various effects on regions that send or receive refugees. A number of studies have been conducted on these effects in different disciplines. The effects of Syrian refugees who were forced to flee their home country into Turkey due to conflict and chaos in 2011 in Syria on relations of production in the host country were analyzed in this study. The scope of the study consists of refugees in Sanliurfa city, which has been hosting the most Syrian refugees in Turkey. However, once refugees get involved in production relations, they affect the accumulation of both local workers and their employers. For this reason, different questionnaires were applied to migrant workers employed in the same workplace, local workers and employers employing both groups of workers in order to investigate all aspects of the phenomenon. Regarding the conceptual fact that capital accumulation can be achieved with the relative and absolute surplus-value increase in capitalist production relations, it has been aimed to identify what effects Syrian refugees have created at both stages through the data obtained from the field. It has been concluded that Syrian refugees, who have become expropriated as a result of forced migration, contribute to capitalist accumulation by both influencing the production of absolute and relative surplus value in terms of providing abundant and cheap labor required by the capital and by creating an effective demand for the goods produced during the realization phase.