The representation of Syrian refugees in Turkey: a critical discourse analysis of three newspapers

This paper explores how Turkish journalists and newspapers constructed discoursive practices in their newspapers in response to the influx of Syrian immigrants. Distinct from other research on Turkish discoursive practices about Syrian immigrants, this paper selects an important time period in recent Turkish history, with the army's intervention into Syria and the ballooning number of refugees, and analyzes the discourses regarding representations of those immigrants in the three highest circulation mainstream newspapers, representative of a heterodox of ideological perspectives. Through an application of critical discourse analysis to news items, the study finds various discoursive structures that are employed to otherize the Syrian immigrants, that is to view and treat Syrian immigrants as intrinsically different from Turks.