Istanbul hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees out of any Turkish city, with their numbers reaching 484,810 out of the 3 million refugees in the country.
According to information from officials in the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, Urfa province comes in second with 425,542 refugees, followed by Hatay with 389,297, Gaziantep with 332,056, Adana with 160,765, Marsin with 149,929, and then Kilis with 125,790 Syrians.
Syrians are also distributed throughout other areas, most prominently Bursa, Izmir, Mardin and Ankara. The officials said that 2,782,146 Syrians in Turkey were living outside temporary refugee centers and that 246,080 refugees were living in camps.
Syrian refugees outside the camps work to provide for their families, with a number of international financial institutions and Western media recently focusing on the positive effect of refugees on the Turkish economy.
In a report issued by credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s, the institution noted that Syrian refugees who had poured into Turkey over previous years had contributed positively to Turkish economic growth.
The report said that the refugee consumption and the unofficial role they play in the economy, in addition to about $10 billion dollars the Turkish government had spent on the refugees, were among the most important factors in the Turkish economic growth.
Official Turkish spending on Syrian refugees, according to the United States, has reached $12.1 billion, while total spending in which civil society groups and Turkish citizens had participated in alongside the official institutions had reached $25 billion.
Contributions from the international community in aiding Syrians in Turkey was just $526 million.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
