Syrian refugees in Turkey start to work in service sector

An increasing number of Syrian refugees has started work in the service sector, thanks to their language abilities. Small shops in Ortaköy are employing Syrians to give a boost to trade As Turkey keeps receiving more Arab tourists, Syrian immigrants in the country, whose number have exceeded 1 million, have started to show up in the service sector, particularly tourism, thanks to their language abilities.

Small shops in Ortaköy, one of the main tourist attractions in Istanbul, for example, are employing Syrians to give a boost to trade. Shopkeepers at the landmark district by the Bosphorus estimate the number of Syrians employed in the small area to be around 250.

Many people who fled from the civil war in the neighboring country have spread across the country as the camps in Turkey’s south fail to meet all of their needs.

Syrian immigrants were mostly employed at manufacturing industries, small producers and agriculture initially, mainly because they requested moderate salaries. Most are not registered and do not hold a residence permit.

Istanbul received 712,000 Arab tourists in just the first five months of the year, some 16.6 percent up from the figure a year earlier. And it is only the beginning of the high season in the city.

In the Taksim area, the heart of entertainment in the city, menus and store signs in Arabic are becoming more prevalent. Many real estate firms also employ Arabic speakers. Along with Taksim and Ortaköy, the center of the Beşiktaş neighborhood is where many Arab tourists visit and Syrians are employed accordingly.

Muhammad, a 23-year-old who works as a waiter in Ortaköy, has told Hürriyet that he came to Turkey five months...