Examining of the Comments related to news on the Syrian Migrants in the Turkish Press

Mass migration has profoundly influenced the social, economic, political and cultural structure of the migration-receiving societies throughout history. Turkey that hosted several mass migrations in different periods has faced a mass migration from Syria since 2011 as a result of civil war. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs Directorate General of Migration data by 2018 August, the number of Syrian migrants under temporary protection since April 2011 is over 3.500.000. In this article, it is dealt with the change of views about Syrian migrants in Turkey. It is tried to come to a conclusion about the level of othering of Syrians in Turkey looking at examples on the internet regarding the reflection of attitudes concerning migrants and if there is an othering discourse about Syrians in public. Therefore, the news on the internet is analyzed and some data is obtained from this news. The data is analyzed descriptively. The news and reader comments regarding Syrian migrants titled as “Syrians” in mainstream newspapers in Turkey is analyzed and it is found that Turkish people’s view of Syrians is deeply affected by some local problematic events in the eyes of host people, social position of migrants is shaped by “otherness’s experience, and this situation has neutralized the discourse of ‘guest’ status of these Syrian migrants. However, in addition to all these factors such a point of view is far from reflecting the government’s and local people’s general stance who embrace Syrians with ‘open door’ policy from the beginning onwards