Syrian Refugees and Xenophobia: The Role of Gender, Education, Perceived Economic Income, and Age

In the present study, it was aimed to examine the effect of gender, education level, perceived socio-economic status and age on the xenophobic attitudes of local people toward Syrian refugees in Turkey. The data, based on AFAD (2018) refugees’ reports, were collected from 604 volunteers aged between 16 and 85 living in Istanbul, Hatay, Mardin, Malatya, Batman, and Gaziantep provinces. The Revised Xenophobia Scale was used to collect the data. The relationship between gender and xenophobia was examined by using t-test analysis for independent samples and the relationship between participants’ education level, perceived socio-economic status and age, and xenophobic attitudes towards Syrian refugees were examined by using one-way variance (ANOVA) analysis. In addition, the interaction effects of gender and education level, perceived socio-economic status, and age on xenophobia were also analyzed with different two-way ANOVAs. The findings showed that; being male, having a high school or lower education level, having low socio-economic conditions, and being 46 and over aged increase the xenophobic attitudes of individuals towards Syrian refugees. Finally, it was determined that the source of the relationship between education level, socio-economic status, age and xenophobia came from these variables and was independent of their gender. In other words, the interactions effects of gender and of these variables on xenophobia were not significant.