The Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA) hosted a workshop on Friday that drew consideration to the specter of racism and xenophobia focusing on worldwide college students.
Türkiye is a significant attraction for college kids from internationally and at present hosts greater than 300,000 of them at universities in 81 provinces. The nation has raised its profile as a global schooling hub lately, due to the proliferation of personal and public universities and incentives akin to new scholarship applications. The nation’s altering profile in worldwide affairs and its improved bilateral relations prior to now decade contributed to the rising variety of college students.
Yet, Türkiye additionally faces an escalation, particularly on social media, of xenophobia and racism. It is extra associated to the rising variety of migrants and refugees within the nation, however sometimes, worldwide college students are the goal of verbal harassment on social media.
SETA General Coordinator Professor Burhanettin Duran instructed a gathering on the workshop entitled “Impact of Xenophobia on International Students” that worldwide college students have been amongst main contributors to Türkiye’s integration with the world and famous rhetoric focusing on them emerged as a significant situation. “We see xenophobia and Islamophobia going hand in hand in the West and in Türkiye, under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, these issues were prevented. But we see them escalating recently again. This necessitates taking some measures,” he mentioned.
Professor Çağrı Erhan, rector of Altınbaş University in Istanbul, mentioned xenophobia within the West drove worldwide college students from many nations to decide on Türkiye as a substitute for schooling. “But the concern over xenophobia in Türkiye bears the risk of creating the same consequence here (driving students to other countries,” he mentioned.
Professor Erol Özvar, head of the Board of Higher Education, mentioned worldwide pupil mobility has been a strategic situation within the political subject and the variety of worldwide college students in Türkiye elevated tenfold prior to now twenty years, surpassing the United States and the United Kingdom. “International students are important for host countries in terms of economy and cultural interaction. Thus, we need a smooth process without any problems for their social integration,” he mentioned.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
