When we look at what left its mark on the 2010s, we see many titles, especially the war in Syria. Although political figures such as Boris Johnson and Donald Trump will have a wider place in our visual memory of this decade, the mass migration movement and anti-immigrant discourse in the world seem to be the main issues of this decade. Because, with its causes and consequences, migration has become a determining factor at the highest level. From the local election results in Istanbul to the journey of far-right leaders in Europe, immigration and refugees are at the center of discussions on many issues.
When it comes to migration, it is possible to say that the debate has a multi-layered structure with many actors in the case of Turkey. There is a diversity in the legal status of the refugees who came to Turkey for various reasons, the country they came from, the perception towards them, and different understandings of refugees. This research aims to understand how the issue of refugees is reflected in the columns in the Turkish media, based on the opinion articles focusing on immigrants published in digital and printed publications representing different political orientations in the Turkish media between 12 July 2021 and 31 August 2021.
Throughout the research, many different questions such as how columnists define immigrants, whether there is particular emphasis on the gender factor, how the demographic profile of immigrants is defined by columnists, which groups of immigrants are the subject of the articles most, or the migration motivations of immigrants have been focused on. 50 opinion articles about refugees published on Akşam, Aydınlık, Birgün, Cumhuriyet, Dünya, Evrensel, Gazete Duvar, Habertürk, Hürriyet, Karar, Korkusuz, Milat, Milliyet, Ortadoğu, Posta, Sol Haber, Sözcü, Türkgün, Yeniçağ, Yeni Şafak have been analyzed.
The results of the research can be summarized as follows: