Directorate of Migration Management (PDMM), where they need to provide the required identification information and submit any available documents brought from Syria. In the absence of any official ID or documentation, authorities conduct the registration based on testimony. Upon registration with the PDMM, Syrian refugees are issued a Temporary Protection ID card with an ID number. Households then need to register their address at the Directorate of Civil Registry (“Nüfus”) where the address information is recorded in the Central Registration Administration System (MERNIS). Refugees are required to reside in the province of registration to be able to benefit from public services or any available assistance. Households wishing to change their province of registration at a later date can do so on an exceptional basis after submitting an official petition to their provincial PDMM office and receiving approval.<sup>13</sup> Once a household is registered, it can prove difficult to add new household members that may join the household later on – mainly caused by absences of documentation, spelling differences in existing documents, or a backlog of cases to be processed.

The ESSN application can then be made by an adult from a registered refugee household at the Social Assistance and Solidarity Foundations (SASF) or TRC Service Centers, where applications are digitized and processed into the same consolidated “Integrated Social Assistance System” (ISAS) used for Turkish citizens. ISAS is an e-government system that facilitates all steps related to the management of social assistance electronically, including the application, verification of eligibility, approval to disburse transfers, and auditing. It integrates data from more than 20 public institutions, which enable verification of application information in a matter of minutes. ISAS’s linked databases include the registration records of PDMM, the address records of MERNIS, social security information from the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services, and vehicle ownership information from Ministry of Finance, among others. ISAS has been touted as international best practice, significantly reducing delays and errors in processing applications and social assistance.<sup>14</sup> In order to be eligible, applicant households need to meet at least one of the following six demographic criteria: a) dependency ratio greater than or equal to 1.5 (essentially, at least three dependents for every two able-bodied adults), b) families with four or more children, c) single females, d) elderly headed households, e) single parent households (male or female), and f) households with one member at least 40% disabled. These criteria were chosen as proxies of household vulnerability, using correlation analysis with per capita expenditure of refugees in Turkey, vulnerability definitions of Turkish Social Assistance System, and international evidence from refugees in Lebanon and Jordan.<sup>15</sup> Upon the receipt of the application, the information declared by the household is cross-checked and verified digitally through the databases integrated in the ISAS system. The beneficiary selection process is strictly based

> 13 UNHCR Turkey, Key Information for Syrians.

> 14 Republic of Turkey Ministry of Family and Social Policy and The World Bank (2017).

> 15 Altındağ et al. (2020) develop a targeting model for refugees in Lebanon using administrative data that are routinely collected by humanitarian agencies, which compares favorably to the “scorecard” approach requiring household surveys.

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