Turkish Heritage Organization’s summer research program brings American researchers to Turkey

WASHINGTON

The Turkish Heritage Organization (THO) is scheduled to complete its inaugural summer program that brought young American researchers to Turkey to study the refugee crisis.

After orientation meetings in Washington D.C., the researchers traveled to Turkish cities for a week each to get a firsthand look at whole-of-society approaches to the refugee and asylum crises in Turkey. 

From July 18 to Aug. 15, the researchers gathered information for individual research projects around this year’s theme, “Refugees and Asylum-Seekers in Turkey: Challenges, Opportunities, and Approaches,” in Washington, D.C., Istanbul, Ankara and Gaziantep.

The researchers engaged in more than 50 meetings with university research centers, academics, civil society organizations, think tanks, government agencies, international organizations, and NGOs.

Turkish government entities included the foreign, labor, justice, education and health ministries, as well as official agencies for migration and emergency management.

 U.S. government agencies, including the State Department and USAID, beside Turkish NGOs and companies, were also involved in the program, which was led by THO Program Officer Caysie Myers and was supported by THO Program Officer Audrey Williams.

Juliette Tolay, an assistant professor of political science at the School of Public Affairs at Penn State Harrisburg who has extensive expertise on asylum and migration, served as the academic guide for the program.

The researchers are scheduled to complete individual research projects in September and they will be published on THO’s website in fall 2018.