THE ROLE OF THE EU-TURKEY JOINT ACTION PLAN IN SYRIAN REFUGEES' EDUCATIONAL INTEGRATION INTO TURKISH SOCIETY: A QUALITATIVE CASE- STUDY OF POLICY IMPLEMENTATION Fatikha Ilgizovna Khasanova A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2020 Committee: Bruce Collet, Advisor Christy Galletta-Horner Marc Simon © 2020 Fatikha Khasanova All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Bruce Collet, Advisor After the initiation of negotiations between the EU and Turkey on the conditions of temporary protection provision to Syrians arriving in Turkey in massive numbers, the policy of the EU-Turkey Joint Action Plan emerged. The study focuses on the analysis of policy implementation, the EU-Turkey Joint Action Plan (EU, 2015a), which has earned the reputation of a controversial international agreement due to the discussion of counteractive and preventive measures, aiming at a significant reduction of the illegal migration flows between Turkey and the EU. The EU-Turkey Joint Action Plan addresses the support provision for Syrian refugees under temporary protection in Turkey in the form of financial assistance, dedicated towards the enhancement and construction of facilities (FRIT), and the implementation of integrational projects and initiatives, such as Promoting Integration of Syrian Children into Turkish Education System (PICTES), which ensure the creation of a sustainable environment for Syrian refugees in Turkey (EU, 2015b). The study uses a qualitative research design with the following sources of data collection for content analysis: policy documents, analytic reports, research articles, newspaper articles and news reports. The data are analyzed using Sabatier and Mazmanian’s (1980) conceptual framework for policy implementation research. The research goal is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of EU-Turkey Joint Action Plan policy and the FRIT program implementation, and to describe their possible impact on Syrian refugees’ educational integration. Additionally, the research also discusses the past and present effects of EU-Turkey inter-relational discourse on the implementation of EU-Turkey Joint Action Plan throughout 2015-2019. iv To my mother and all my teachers both in life and in the classroom. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Accomplishing this thesis work is a step beyond imaginable for a girl like me, who comes from a Tatar lower-middle-class family in Russia and has no parents or relatives speaking English. So many people stand behind my current accomplishment, and I am afraid the Acknowledgements page is not enough to pay tribute to all of them. I am very grateful for the Fulbright Foreign Student Program for making my educational journey to the United States possible. Without the granted financial assistance and the Fulbright staff’s constant support, my study at Bowling Green State University, the United States, would not have been possible. I would not have had a chance to meet my outstanding advisor, Dr. Bruce Collet, and other professors who helped me with my thesis, Dr. Christy Galletta-Horner, and Dr. Marc Simon. At your classes, Dr. Collet, I learned about the existence of comparative studies in education, and about what kind of professor I would want myself to become if I ever decided to do so. Through your teachings, Dr. Galletta-Horner, I discovered educational and qualitative research methods. Until I met you, I did not know they were so many and that the methods classes could be so engaging. Dr. Marc Simon, your classes on conflict resolution served me as an introduction to the field of political science, and they inspired me to conduct research across the fields of education and public policy implementation. In my heart, I feel forever grateful to all my English language teachers, who supported me from Grade 1 till the moment I entered the classroom as an English language teacher myself. All the work they put in me was so inspirational and profound that I do not know if I can ever be grateful enough to them. Even though my mother will never be able to read and understand this thesis, she is the person who showed me by her example of how empowering learning can be. I am where I am today because of her unshakeable trust in me and her constant support. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION .......................................................……………………… 1 Purpose of the Study .................................…………………………………………. 1 Significance of the Study ........................................................................................... 2 Organization of the Chapters ..................................................................................... 2 CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................................. 4 Historical and Ideological Foundations of the EU-Turley Joint Action Plan ............ 4 EU-Turkey Relations in the Context of Accession, Migration, and Politico-Economic Partnership Prior to Signing the EU-Turkey Joint Action Plan ............................................................................................................ 4 Turkey’s accession negotiations ........................................................ 4 EU-Turkey relations in the prospect of irregular migration management and the Syrian refugee crisis .............................................................. 7 History of the EU and Turkey’s Identity-Based Policy Development .......... 10 The EC as the institutional embodiment of the EU: EC’s self-vision in the question of relationship regulations with Turkey......................... 10 Islamisation and Turkishness as the leading forces behind the identity- driven policy development in modern Turkey ................................... 12 Normative Nature of the EU-Turkey Joint Action Plan ............................................ 13 Joint Action Plan as the Legal Tool for Ensuring Syrian’s Temporary Protection on the Territory of Turkey ......................................... 13 Legal scope of the Joint Action Plan ................................................. 13 vii Temporary protection of the Syrian population in Turkey: educational rights and entitlements ....................................................................... 14 Syrian Refugees as Temporary Protection Beneficiaries Under the Joint Action Plan ...................................................................................... 15 Barriers for Syrian refugees’ access to education .............................. 15 Educational possibilities for Syrian refugees under the scope of the Joint Action Plan ................................................................................ 17 Initiatives for educational integration of Syrian children within the framework of Joint Action Plan implementation ........................ 17 Existing Studies of the EU-Turkey Joint Action Plan .............................................. 19 Description of Analytical Framework ...................................................................... 20 CHAPTER III. METHODS ..............................................................………………………. 24 Research Questions ..……………………………………………………………….. 24 Research Design………………………………………………………………………. 24 The Role of Case Study Methodology in Policy Implementation Studies .... 25 Data Collection ......................................................................................................... 25 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................ 29 Validity ............................................................................................................ 31 Limitations of the Study ................................................................................ 31 Researcher’s Turkish language knowledge capabilities .................... 31 Researcher subjectivity ...................................................................... 31 Policy implementation study limitation ............................................. 32 CHAPTER IV. FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS ........................……………………………. 33 viii Tractability of the Problem of Syrian Refugees’ Educational Integration in Turkey Addressed by the EU-Turkey Joint Action Plan ....................................................... 33 Availability of Valid Technical Theory and/or Technology Underpinning Policy Creation............................................................................................... 33 The technical theory behind the formation of the EU-Turkey Joint Action Plan......................................................................................... 34 The technical theory underpinning the establishment of the FRIT program and the PICTES project ....................................................... 35 Diversity of Target Group Behavior and Percentage of Target Group Population Within the Area of Policy Influence ............................................ 37 Demographic data and the percentage of target group population .... 38 Syrian refugees’ educational status .................................................... 40 Extent of Behavioral Change Required ......................................................... 41 Ability of Statute to Structure the Implementation .................................................... 44 Clear and Consistent Structurization of Policy Implementation .................... 44 The central policy - the EU-Turkey Joint Action