Syrian refugees, economic burden or opportunity in Turkey?

Nearly 10 people died every day trying the treacherous boat journey across the Mediterranean, with Syrians accounting for 34% of all arrivals between January and June 2015. Despite this, European leaders kept meeting for months to negotiate the parameters for accepting "immigrants" vs. "refugees." over and over. However, Turkey was taking action by hosting millions of Syrian migrants since 2011; all the while, Hungary, an EU member, was building a fence around the country's borders to prevent any refugees infiltration. As Amnesty International notes, Turkey is currently hosting 3.6 million refugees from Syria, which is more than any other country worldwide. This paper sheds the light on what possible lessons can Europe learn from Turkey's approach to Syrian refugees. By handling an important influx of Syrians, Turkey offered further historical lessons on how to handle "refugee emergencies" that could help inform contemporary policy responses globally. Turkey's meritorious efforts in welcoming the Syrian refugees will be the focus of this paper: How has Turkey been integrating refugees into the workforce? Has Turkey benefited from the refugees, especially the high-skilled and business oriented ones? The necessity of increasing the EU shared responsibility. This paper is based on information gathered by Amnesty International during research in Turkey in 2014 (June-October), and semi-structured interviews conducted with Syrians living in Turkey in March 2016 (from a previous research) and two additional interviews with Syrians who moved from Turkey to Canada in November 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]