The Emergency Social Safety Net Cash Transfer and Syrians’ Migration Aspirations in Türkiye

By improving livelihood, a central policy aim of the Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN) is to reduce refugees’ onwards migration aspirations in Türkiye. Using data collected by the WFP from to 2018 to 2020, we conducted a series of logistic regressions to compare the migration aspirations of ESSN beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries. The results demonstrate that in 2018, there was no significant relationship between receiving ESSN and Syrian refugees’ migration aspirations; however, this changed in 2020. We used ANOVA analysis to contextualise the changing results in 2020 and find that overall living conditions have deteriorated and insecurity and unemployment have increased for Syrian refugees in Türkiye from 2018 to 2020.