Our daily sense of what it means to be a refugee is dominated by images of attempted movement – people undertaking difficult journeys, being stuck at borders and camps, or being victimised by border controls. Yet not all displaced people want to move. Some wish to stay put and grow roots where they currently are.
For most displaced people this is surprisingly difficult to do. Countries like Turkey, which hosts a large number of refugees, are far from providing protection to displaced people, let alone a life where one can realise their aspirations for the future. Most also do not officially recognise the refugees within their borders. Turkey accomplishes this through a geographical limitation it placed on the 1951 Refugee Convention, which allows it to refuse refugee status to people originating from non-European countries.
Displaced Syrians are mostly registered under temporary protection, which allows them to stay in Turkey without specifying for how long. Afghans in the country are, generally speaking, even more precarious. Most are unregistered and deprived of any legal status, while a minority are given conditional refugee status for as long as it takes them to be resettled to third countries. They are often made to wait years for an opportunity to do so.
