Türkiye is home to a large refugee population. Indeed, it has the largest refugee community from neighboring Syria. Though it takes pride in being a haven for the oppressed, disadvantaged people fleeing conflicts, some politicians and social media users stoke tensions between locals and refugees. Experts say media, particularly social media, play a major role in this issue.
Experts point out that discriminatory language used in news stories is among the contributors to a mindset that views people who had to flee their countries as “evil” or foreigners seeking to exploit Türkiye. Media reports perpetuated on social media networks, accompanied by discriminatory videos and photos, further add to this portrayal.
Professor Mehmet Barış Horzum of Sakarya University said posts targeting refugees and migrants quickly spread on social media, often with “devastating consequences.” An information technology expert, Horzum noted that “cyberbullying” migrants and refugees left an irreversible impact on them. “For instance, when someone tweeted a post about ‘some Afghan who injured (a Turkish national), a large number of people, without verifying the story, share it. Those sharing it may not intend their post to harm but it harms an innocent person,” he told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Thursday.
Horzum noted that the “correct” use of technology against disinformation was important because digital platforms have been the most basic source of shared information. “When used improperly, digital media trigger several psychological, sociological and criminal issues. It may lead to consequences like increasing xenophobia, attacks on migrants and refugees and discrimination toward disadvantaged communities,” he said.
He also noted social media algorithms played a role in fast-spreading racist posts. “Algorithms are methods of analyzing possibilities of interactions of social media users with topics they might be interested in. They are based on what we share on social media and prioritize the content exclusive to us based on those posts while offering content. In turn, it reinforces the thought that others share our opinion. So, even if our opinion is wrong, its prevalence may convince us to advocate stronger for them.”
Associate professor Nursem Keskin Aksay, a sociology expert from Ibn Haldun University, said the language is the starting point of discrimination toward migrants and refugees in conventional media and social media platforms. “This group of people already faces a barrier when you call them foreigners or aliens. Many media outlets use this term but we need to eliminate this alienating language,” Aksay said. She also highlighted that the media used the word “refugee” both for migrants and refugees, though they had very different meanings. She said the “bad” portrayal of refugees in the conventional media reflects itself on social media too. “On social media, refugees and migrants are always at the center of debates for bad things they’ve done. People do not think twice while sharing photos, videos and posts with discriminatory language. At the end of the day, they are portrayed as people with low income without any intellectual past or education and people who are in Türkiye solely to exploit it,” she said.
Aksay said that a discriminatory mindset tries to cram all refugees into “one identity” regardless of their diverse differences and more often than not, faced a derogatory mindset portraying them as people who are not abiding by rules and lacking etiquette. She noted that her field studies and studies by other researchers showed that refugees genuinely liked Türkiye and tried to adapt to the rules of the country and Turkish society while at the same time preserving their own culture.
