This section calculates the impact of formalizing Syrian employees for their employers, the Social
Security Institute (SSI), the Treasury and the employees themselves. This research is carried out
with the aim of bringing all economic actors under the spotlight since, as Bangasser (2000) lucidly
pointed out, it is often ‘… much safer to help those suffering from informality than to confront those
benefiting from it’. In this respect we find that Turkey-based employers may be saving 8,171 millions
a year at the expense of the SSI and those employed without a work permit. At the same time, the
SSI is not only deprived of an income flow estimated in 7,060 millions per year but is also required
to provide health care services to Syrian refugees who belong to the Temporary Protection regime,
putting pressure on the institution and endangering its sustainability.
The importance of providing work permits to informal Syrian employees goes beyond social security
contributions gone astray; it is related to the provision of decent work, including access to health care,
to a pension after retirement as well other labour rights provisioned by the law. In spite of the
importance of providing formal work arrangements, only 27,93047 temporary protection beneficiaries
had received a work permit by September 2018, a figure that anticipates a long and arduous path
ahead in the quest for formalizing this group of employees.
Some measures aimed at facilitating the work permit application process have already been put
in place by the government; these include online processing of application forms, the provision of an
46This number is calculated by adding up the differences between the DGMM and our own (based on the 2017 HLFS,
see Appendix C) estimates on the number of Syrian refugees in the sub-regions that gained population.
47Source: http://www.asylumineurope.org/reports/country/turkey/access-labour-market-0.
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Syrian refugees in the Turkish Labour Market
step-by-step guide designed to walk employers through the process and a dramatic reduction in the
application fee from 761.1 to 283.248 for a 1 year work permit as of 2019. Still, existing restrictions
related to eligibility may be dramatically reducing the number of Syrian refugees who could obtain
a work permit. Two of these restrictions, the 10 per cent employment quota and the obligation to
work in the same province where the person was initially registered, might, in practice, discard 68.4
per cent of the informal Syrian employees from receiving a work permit. In addition, Syrian refugees’
guaranteed access to health services and uncertainty with respect to their future living arrangements
may lower their incentives to demand their formalization, thus delaying the conversion even further.
In light of the poor conversion rate to formality of Syrian employees, and with the objective of
providing decent work for all as well as supporting the SSI’s operations, some additional measures
might be due. At a minimum, effective guidance should be developed for Syrian workers. Social
security rights and obligations should be well explained and information activities should be organized
within this scope. One direction that could be explored is the relaxation of the employment quota
for those under the temporary protection regime, which currently is even more stringent than the
one applied to other migrants. Another dimension that could be further studied is the removal of
the mobility restrictions, especially in view of the limited success it has had in preventing internal
migrations for job search purposes. In addition to the measures directed at enlarging the pool of
eligible applicants, some policies aimed at increasing the incentives of Syrian refugees to demand their
formalization can also be used. One such policy could offer a lump-sum with a share of the social
security contributions to returning refugees. This would not only increase the demand of work permits
but would also facilitate the return and re-integration of Syrian refugees in their country of origin
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