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Saturday, November 12
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PN 278
Representing Migration: Analysis of Media Portrayals of Syrian Migrant Women in Turkey
T. Asrak Hasdemir
1
, R. Uzun
1
1
Gazi University, Faculty of Communication, Ankara, Turkey
As of the early 2000s, migrants from Syria were accepted as guests who would temporarily reside in Turkey. However, this notion has been changed with
the increasing number of Syrian migrants residing in Turkey or trying to be transferred to other countries over Turkey. Nowadays, Syrians in Turkey have
important difficulties in integrating in Turkey. Some of these problems are closely related to the demographic characteristics of the host cities or regions,
including their ethnic nature. Besides, recent studies indicate that economic factors, especially regarding employment, wage levels, negatively affect host
people’s attitudes toward Syrian people. In some sectors, they are seen as a reserve labor force with low wages. This is regarded as an increasing burden
of unemployment and economic competition. Furthermore, rising accommodation costs and prices in general in places where Syrians reside can be listed as
sources of problems shaping the attitudes toward them. Depending on the density of Syrians and their poor living conditions, many host people believe they
cause security problems. What’s more, legal regulations have some deficiencies to provide solutions to the Syrian migrants in Turkey. Considering the legal
framework, there are two main legal documents which shape the policies toward immigrants and asylum seekers in Turkey: 1934 Settlement Law, 1951
Geneva Convention and its 1967 Additional Protocol on the status of refugees.Turkey is one of the signatory countries of both document but has granted this
right only to Europeans.The lack of legal regulations and consistent policies makes the issue including Syrians’trafficking and migration a daunting problem
to deal with causing an increase in the vulnerabilities of the Syrians. According to the recent data, the majority of the Syrian refugees is women and children
who are defined as human groups with special needs/care in international human rights documents and they can be more vulnerable to hard living con‑
ditions. Therefore, the focus of this presentation will be Syrian migrant women in Turkey. The presentation aims at exploring the representations of Syrian
migrant women in theTurkish press. Newspapers’stories/photographs about this topic will be analyzed to examine how theTurkish press portray Syrian mi‑
grant women and to determine whether the press reflect the problems they face. Specifically, it also attempts to explore the differences/similarities among
online newspapers in terms of editorial choices about migrant women. In order to compare the newspaper policies, research data will be collected from
three Turkish online newspaper websites, Hürriyet, Birgün and Sabah, each of which has different editorial policy in representing migration. The findings
of quantitative content analysis of the news stories regarding Syrian migrant women will provide an understanding of the relationship between gendered
constructions of migration and the governmental policies. At the same time, it will also determine whether the press raises awareness about the problems
of Syrian migrant women, which is the first step for the solution. The presentation concludes with further evaluations and recommendations for contribut‑
ing to formulate media policies and practices sensitive to migrant women rights in international human rights documents.