skip to main content
10.1145/3356991.3365472acmconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagesgisConference Proceedingsconference-collections
research-article

The built environment and Syrian refugee integration in Turkey: an analysis of mobile phone data

Published: 05 November 2019 Publication History

Editorial Notes

A corrigendum was issued for this article on January 9, 2020. You can download the corrigendum from the supplemental material section of this citation page.

Abstract

We use a large call detail record (CDR) dataset from mobile operator Türk Telekom to examine how refugees from the Syrian Refugee Crisis are integrating into Turkish society. We extract different types of callers from the social network: refugees who often call Turkish nationals, refugees who do not call Turks; Turks who often call refugees, and Turks who do not call refugees. We consider frequent phone calls between refugees and Turks to indicate high levels of bridging social capital for these users and that refugees tied to Turkish nationals through calls have integrated into the Turkish society, economically and/or socially. We also assume that Turks who often call refugees are investing in creating these relationships (although these comprise a relatively small set of users).
Each user is geolocated based on the cell towers they use, to produce an activity space that approximates the parts of the country/city frequented over a time span. We ask: in what kinds of landscapes do these "bridging" members of Turkish society live? We overlay their activity spaces with infrastructural and socioeconomic indicators (i.e. distance from the Syrian border, intersection with urban amenities, etc.), and statistically measure the extent to which these users differ from the average user in the network.
We found few significant geographic patterns for refugees who were calling Turks often. However, bridging Turks were found to be located near infrastructural variables such as places of worship, schools, community centers, and social centers/facilities, more often than their non-bridging counterparts. These differences were strongest in locales with Muslim and Sunni Muslim places of worship. In these locales, presumably, refugees and Turkish nationals share common values and beliefs. Our results provide quantitative evidence suggesting the significance of social amenities and meeting places for face-to-face connection and social support for the livelihoods of refugees and refugee integration.

Supplementary Material

a4-andris-corrigendum (a4-andris-corrigendum.pdf)
Corrigendum to "The built environment and Syrian refugee integration in Turkey: an analysis of mobile phone data," by Andris et al., Proceedings of the 3rd ACM SIGSPATIAL International Workshop on Geospatial Humanities (GeoHumanities '19).

References

[1]
Alastair Ager and Alison Strang. 2008. Understanding Integration: A Conceptual Framework. Journal of Refugee Studies 21, 2 (04 2008).
[2]
Khorshed Alam and Sophia Imran. 2015. The digital divide and social inclusion among refugee migrants: A case in regional Australia. Information Technology & People 28, 2 (2015), 344--365.
[3]
M. Tarik Altuncu, Ayse Seyyide Kaptaner, and Nur Sevencan. 2019. Optimizing the Access to Healthcare Services in Dense Refugee Hosting Urban Areas: A Case for Istanbul. In Guide to Mobile Data Analytics in Refugee Scenarios, Albert Ali Salah, Alex Pentland, Bruno Lepri, and Emmanuel Letouzé (Eds.). Springer, Chapter 20, 403--416.
[4]
Kasky B Bacishoga, Val A Hooper, and Kevin A Johnston. 2016. The role of mobile phones in the development of social capital among refugees in South Africa. The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries 72, 1 (2016), 1--21.
[5]
Kasky Bisimwa Bacishoga and Kevin Allan Johnston. 2013. Impact of mobile phones on integration: The case of refugees in South Africa. Journal of Community Informatics 9, 4 (2013), 1--12.
[6]
Michiel A. Bakker, Daoud A. Piracha, Patricia J. Lu, Keis Bejgo, Mohsen Bahrami, Yan Leng, Jose Balsa-Barreiro, Julie Ricard, Alfredo J. Morales, Vivek K. Singh, Burcin Bozkaya, Selim Balcisoy, and Alex âĂŹSandyâĂŹ Pentland. 2019. Measuring fine-grained multidimensional integration using mobile phone metadata: the case of Syrian refugees in Turkey. In Guide to Mobile Data Analytics in Refugee Scenarios, Albert Ali Salah, Alex Pentland, Bruno Lepri, and Emmanuel Letouzé (Eds.). Springer, Chapter 7, 123--140.
[7]
Jeremy Boy, David Pastor, Marguerite Nyhan, Daniel Macguire, Rebeca Moreno Jimenez, and Miguel Luengo-Oroz. 2019. Towards an Understanding of Refugee Segregation, Isolation, Homophily and Ultimately Integration in Turkey Using Call Detail Records. In Guide to Mobile Data Analytics in Refugee Scenarios, Albert Ali Salah, Alex Pentland, Bruno Lepri, and Emmanuel Letouzé (Eds.). Springer, Chapter 8, 141--164.
[8]
Keeley Brian. 2007. OECD Insights Human Capital How what you know shapes your life: How what you know shapes your life. OECD publishing, Paris, France.
[9]
Fabian Bruckschen, Till Koebe, Melina Ludolph, Maria Francesca Marino, and Timo Schmid. 2019. Refugees in undeclared employment: A case study in Turkey. In Guide to Mobile Data Analytics in Refugee Scenarios, Albert Ali Salah, Alex Pentland, Bruno Lepri, and Emmanuel Letouzé (Eds.). Springer, Chapter 17, 329--346.
[10]
T Claridge. 2018. What is bridging social capital? Social Capital Research & Training (2018).
[11]
JS Coleman. 1990. Foundations of Social Theory. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
[12]
Jennifer Dill. 2004. Measuring network connectivity for bicycling and walking. In 83rd Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC. 11--15.
[13]
Otis D. Duncan and Beverly Duncan. 1955. A Methodological Analysis of Segregation Indexes. American Sociological Review 20, 2 (1955), 210--2017.
[14]
John H Fleming, Neli Esipova, Anita Pugliese, Julie Ray, and Rajesh Srinivasan. 2018. DATA-SURVEY: Migrant Acceptance Index: A Global Examination of the Relationship Between Interpersonal Contact and Attitudes toward Migrants. Border Crossing 8, 1 (2018), 103--132.
[15]
Erika Frydenlund, Meltem Y. Åđener, Ross Gore, Christine Boshuijzen-van Burken, Engin Bozdag, and Christa de Kock. 2019. Characterizing the mobile phone use patterns of refugee hosting provinces in Turkey. In Guide to Mobile Data Analytics in Refugee Scenarios, Albert Ali Salah, Alex Pentland, Bruno Lepri, and Emmanuel Letouzé (Eds.). Springer, Chapter 21, 417--431.
[16]
Christiaan Grootaert and Thierry Van Bastelaer. 2001. Understanding and measuring social capital: A synthesis of findings and recommendations from the social capital initiative. Vol. 24. World Bank, Social Development Family, Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Network. 31 pages.
[17]
Wangsu Hu, Ran He, Jin Cao, Lisa Zhang, Huseyin Uzunalioglu, Ahmet Akyamac, and Chitra Phadke. 2019. Quantified Understanding of Syrian Refugee Integration in Turkey. In Guide to Mobile Data Analytics in Refugee Scenarios, Albert Ali Salah, Alex Pentland, Bruno Lepri, and Emmanuel Letouzé (Eds.). Springer, Chapter 11, 201--221.
[18]
Kristina Jovanovski. 2013. Syrian Refugees Who Were Welcomed in Turkey Now Face Backlash. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/syrian-refugees-who-fled-turkey-face-backlash-n978831
[19]
Marta Kindler, Vesselina Ratcheva, and Maria Piechowska. 2015. Social networks, social capital and migrant integration at local level. European literature review. Institute For Research Into Superdiversity 6 (2015).
[20]
Kemal Kirisci, Jessica Brandt, and M Erdogan. 2018. Syrian refugees in Turkey: beyond the numbers. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/06/19/syrian-refugees-in-turkey-beyond-the-numbers/.
[21]
Carleen Maitland. 2018. Digital Lifeline?: ICTs for Refugees and Displaced Persons. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
[22]
Marco Mamei, Seyit Cilasun, Marco Lippi, Francesca Pancotto, and Semih Tümen. 2019. Improve Education Opportunities for Better Integration of Syrian Refugees in Turkey. In Guide to Mobile Data Analytics in Refugee Scenarios, Albert Ali Salah, Alex Pentland, Bruno Lepri, and Emmanuel Letouzé (Eds.). Springer, Chapter 19, 381--402.
[23]
Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton. 1988. The Dimensions of Residential Segregation. Social Forces 67, 2 (1988), 281--315.
[24]
Albert Ali Salah, Alex Pentland, Bruno Lepri, Emmanuel Letouzé, Patrick Vinck, Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye, Xiaowen Dong, and Özge Dağdelen. 2018. Data for Refugees: The D4R Challenge on Mobility of Syrian Refugees in Turkey. arXiv preprint arXiv:1807.00523 (2018).
[25]
Harald Sterly, Benjamin tzold, Lars Wirkus, Patrick Sakdapolrak, Jacob Schewe, Carl-Friedrich Schlessner, and Benjamin Hennig. 2019. AROMA_CoDa: Assessing Refugees' Onward Mobility through the Analysis of Communication Data. In Guide to Mobile Data Analytics in Refugee Scenarios, Albert Ali Salah, Alex Pentland, Bruno Lepri, and Emmanuel Letouze (Eds.). Springer, Chapter 13, 251--263.
[26]
Luisa Veronis, Zac Tabler, and Rukhsana Ahmed. 2018. Syrian refugee youth use social media: Building transcultural spaces and connections for resettlement in Ottawa, Canada. Canadian Ethnic Studies 50, 2 (2018), 79--99.

Cited By

View all
  • (2022)A Decade of International Migration Research in HCI: Overview, Challenges, Ethics, Impact, and Future DirectionsACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/349055529:4(1-35)Online publication date: 31-Mar-2022
  • (2020)Using Mobile Phone Data for Emergency Management: a Systematic Literature ReviewInformation Systems Frontiers10.1007/s10796-020-10057-wOnline publication date: 16-Sep-2020

Index Terms

  1. The built environment and Syrian refugee integration in Turkey: an analysis of mobile phone data

      Recommendations

      Comments

      Information & Contributors

      Information

      Published In

      cover image ACM Conferences
      GeoHumanities '19: Proceedings of the 3rd ACM SIGSPATIAL International Workshop on Geospatial Humanities
      November 2019
      45 pages
      ISBN:9781450369602
      DOI:10.1145/3356991
      © 2019 Association for Computing Machinery. ACM acknowledges that this contribution was authored or co-authored by an employee, contractor or affiliate of the United States government. As such, the United States Government retains a nonexclusive, royalty-free right to publish or reproduce this article, or to allow others to do so, for Government purposes only.

      Sponsors

      Publisher

      Association for Computing Machinery

      New York, NY, United States

      Publication History

      Published: 05 November 2019

      Permissions

      Request permissions for this article.

      Check for updates

      Author Tags

      1. CDRs
      2. GIS
      3. humanitarian
      4. mobile phones
      5. points of interest
      6. refugee integration
      7. social relationships

      Qualifiers

      • Research-article

      Funding Sources

      • Penn State Social Science Research Institute (SSRI)

      Conference

      SIGSPATIAL '19
      Sponsor:

      Acceptance Rates

      GeoHumanities '19 Paper Acceptance Rate 6 of 8 submissions, 75%;
      Overall Acceptance Rate 15 of 21 submissions, 71%

      Contributors

      Other Metrics

      Bibliometrics & Citations

      Bibliometrics

      Article Metrics

      • Downloads (Last 12 months)8
      • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)0
      Reflects downloads up to 12 Feb 2025

      Other Metrics

      Citations

      Cited By

      View all
      • (2022)A Decade of International Migration Research in HCI: Overview, Challenges, Ethics, Impact, and Future DirectionsACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/349055529:4(1-35)Online publication date: 31-Mar-2022
      • (2020)Using Mobile Phone Data for Emergency Management: a Systematic Literature ReviewInformation Systems Frontiers10.1007/s10796-020-10057-wOnline publication date: 16-Sep-2020

      View Options

      Login options

      View options

      PDF

      View or Download as a PDF file.

      PDF

      eReader

      View online with eReader.

      eReader

      Figures

      Tables

      Media

      Share

      Share

      Share this Publication link

      Share on social media