But the two groups exist in separate worlds, each frequenting different shops, cafes and even beaches. “Syrians and Turks generally don’t mix, but it doesn’t mean they don’t like or respect each other,” says Emin Özmen, whose photos from the southern cities of Mersin and Gaziantep provide glimpses of Syrian life in Turkey. “Many Syrian families told me how grateful they are for the Turkish people’s hospitality. Some of them showed me their televisions, carpets, other items given to them by their Turkish neighbors.”

But integration isn’t easy. Ankara, overwhelmed with the scale of the refugee crisis, took a long time to begin formalizing its approach to its Syrian “guests,” as it calls them. Until 2014, most Syrian children could not enrol in Turkish schools. Adults were unable to legally access the job market until last year. Turkish language courses are still neither mandatory nor easily accessible for most Syrians. Many have simply taken matters into their own hands, paying for private language lessons, finding off-the-books work and unofficial schools for their children.

Özmen photographed one that was run out of an ordinary apartment in the southern city of Gaziantep in November 2016. “All the rooms were full of children sitting on the floor, including the kitchen,” he recalls. Though the country’s education ministry had opened some courses to Syrian students by that time, Özmen says some families didn’t find the classes rigorous enough.