Syrian Refugee Employment in Turkish MSMEs: Employer Experience and Formal Hiring Frictions

Formal labor market integration remains central to Türkiye’s Syrian refugee response as policy shifts toward longer-term self-reliance and social cohesion. This paper uses a 2026 survey of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) across all 81 provinces in the country, with a dedicated Syrian refugee employment module in 24 provinces covering about 95 percent of Syrians under temporary protection. Among MSMEs in these provinces, 4.5 percent have ever hired Syrian refugee workers and 2.6 percent currently employ them, representing roughly 100,000 and 58,000 firms. Employer-reported experience is generally favorable, yet formal hiring remains constrained by limited knowledge of formal employment requirements, procedural complexity, low support program awareness and use, and reliance on personal networks and direct applications. Current and former employers are far more likely than never-employers to report that additional support would make hiring easier. The findings point to making work authorization pathways clearer and easier to use, reducing administrative frictions, strengthening matching and support services, and differentiating assistance by firms’ prior hiring experience.