JOURNAL OF ETHNIC AND MIGRATION STUDIES
11
Citizenship as status: security of territory and (im)mobility
As noted above, the mobility of Syrians under temporary protection is restricted in
various ways, both within Turkey and beyond. Their immobility as temporary protection
holders is compounded by the limited mobility rights afforded by Syrian citizenship.
According to one index, the Syrian passport holds little "worth", allowing visa-free
travel to 28 destinations and ranking 104th out of 105 states. In comparison, the
Turkish passport grants visa-free access to 116 destinations, ranking 49th out of 105
states (Henley & Partners 2023). Indeed, many Syrians do not have a Syrian passport
at all because of high renewal costs, delays of Syrian embassies due to paper shortages
(Ghazi 2023), or refusal to interact with embassies run by the Assad regime (Ferreri
2022). Turkish citizenship thus potentially facilitates greater mobility compared to
Syrian citizenship.
Unsurprisingly, many interlocutors highlighted how citizenship of Turkey afforded
them greater freedom of movement, through protection from deportation, voluntary
mobility within the state of Turkey, and international travel. As Majed described:
At least, now I can travel between cities without permission. […] if my brother wants to visit
me here in Istanbul and the police caught him, they will send him to jail for 4 to 5 days, then
they will send him back to [another province]
Greater mobility across province borders also meant less exposure to arbitrary treatment
by the police and government officials and contributed to a degree of safety. For example,
Walee, 26, Turkmen, and working for a Turkish NGO, recounted that he once witnessed
a crime and was summoned for a statement at a police station. Although he was not
directly implicated, he was afraid of his encounter with the police. When he received citi
zenship he felt much safer:
Direct deportation, I mean they could have deported me at that time. […] Citizenship gave
me more restfulness in life overall, from a legal point of view, and from a safety point of view
In addition to mobility within Turkey, the Turkish passport also enabled certain forms of
cross-border travelling. Loay, a 26-year-old born in Deir Az-Zor, Syria, went to Georgia on
holidays as soon as he had Turkish citizenship, Georgia being one of the countries where
Turkish citizens did not need a visa. He was also planning to travel to Jerusalem to visit
Palestinian relatives and see the Dome of the Rock, an important site in Islamic belief.
For others, however, even with a Turkish passport, international travel remained out
of reach. Some argued that they remained Syrian, and thus second-class citizens, in the
eyes of visa-issuing embassies. When several interlocutors tried to apply for visas to visit
relatives abroad, they were rejected, in their view not as Turkish citizens but as ‘Syrians
who became Turkish’.
Since I’m a Syrian who became Turkish, [the embassies] are not accepting [my application].
Because they are so afraid that I might ask for asylum (Tania, 32)
While they knew that they would hardly get a visa to the EU with a Syrian passport, they
tried to apply as Turkish citizens but felt they were still rejected as Syrians. Whether this is
true or not is difficult to determine – EU visas by non-Syrian Turkish citizens are also
frequently rejected (Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs 2024). The