8
P. ZISS
themselves. I have also changed some personal information, such as age, to minimize
recognisability amongst other persons in their networks.
All interlocutors who received citizenship in Turkey continued to identify as Syrian
and most were identified as such by others. This bears a question of how to refer to
my interlocutors. There is no standard term for Syrians who have become naturalized
citizens of Turkey. Amongst Syrians, ‘naturalised/nationalised Syrian’ (in Arabic: ﺳﻮﺭﻱ
Suri mujanis) is commonly used but this term is ambiguous in English, as it can/ ﻣﺠﻨﺲ
also refer to naturalization into Syrian nationality. Other studies use ‘Turkish citizens
of Syrian origin’ (Akçapar and Şimşek 2022; Cantürk 2020). In order to respect partici
pants’ self-identification, I tentatively and awkwardly use ‘Syrian with citizenship of
Turkey’ which can be translated into Turkish (Türkiye vatandaşı olan Suriyeliler) and
Arabic ( ﻣﻬﺎ ﺍﻟﺠﻨﺴﻴﺔ ﺍﻟﺘﺮﻛﻴﺔ/ ﺳﻮﺭﻱ ﻣﻌﻪSuri m3ho/m3ha al-jinsiya al-turkiya). I use ‘citizen
ship of Turkey’ as a translation of ‘Türkiye vatandaşı’ and ‘Türkiyeli’, as opposed to
Turkish/‘Türk’ which in Turkish has ethnically exclusionary connotations. ‘Syrian’ is a
shorthand for nationals of Syria, again a national(ist) construction with historical
roots that can include people with a range of religious and ethnic/linguistic backgrounds.
I now turn to the discussion of meanings and strategic uses of citizenship amongst
Syrians in Istanbul, arguing that citizenship provided rights and territorial security
associated with status but these were associated with simultaneously mobilizing and
immobilizing, deterritorializing and territorializing effects.
Citizenship as rights: racism and class
In the context of precarity described above, interlocutors argued that de jure Turkish citi
zenship provided greater access to economic and social rights, especially in terms
of livelihoods, job opportunities and secure housing. Several naturalized interlocutors
contended that they had improved bargaining power vis-à-vis employers, were less
exposed to arbitrary treatment by landlords, and had achieved a sense of greater econ
omic security. However, access to economic and social rights was qualified by experi
ences of racialization. Many interlocutors reported that they continued to be seen as
exploitable ‘Syrians’ which limited their enjoyment of the theoretical economic and
social benefits accessible to citizens. Similarly, experiences of racialization prevented
equal access to the housing market as discrimination by landlords continued. Several
interlocutors of Arab origin reported that in spite of their Turkish ID, landlords
refused to let them as Syrian, because of their accent, name, ways of wearing the head
scarf, or by their location of birth.
This was illustrated by Tania, a 32-year-old woman born in Damascus, who had nat
uralized five years earlier. She had previously worked as an English teacher in a Syrian
private school and was now working as a freelancer in the NGO system. However, she
was struggling to find a permanent post and continued to experience everyday discrimi
nation as a Syrian.
Citizenship gives you kind of a satisfaction feeling that I won’t be kicked out of my house,
just because the owner decided to. […] When I’m going to be hired or my job is going to
end, I know that I’m going be treated somewhat fairly because I will be registered with insur
ance and everything. So this kind of created some kind of safety for me in that sense. […] It
was a knife with two sides [i.e. a double-edged sword]. From one side, it helped [with getting