Turkish Daily Press Framing and Representation of Syrian Women Refugees and Gender-Based Problems: Implications for Social Integration

Abstract

Based on a content analysis of 856 news items sampled from Turkish local and national dailies between January 2013 and December 2015, this study investigates the media coverage and framing of Syrian women refugees in Turkey. It identified13 categories of gender-based problems related to different forms of violence, sexual abuse, specifically cases of forced and early marriage as second wives, and forced prostitution, and reproductive health challenges, which were analyzed through the texture of 6 distinct frames, extracted from the news data by the use of frame analysis tools. Then the study develops hypotheses regarding the type of media framing of Syrian refuge women in Turkey, their mental health and social integration into the host society.

Keywords:

• Syrian women
• gender-based problems
• Turkish print media
• framing of Syrian women refugees
• social integration of Syrian women

Notes

1 Law on Foreigners and International Protection (Law No. 6458) was approved and published in the Official Gazette in April 2013 and it became effective in April 2014. On October 22, 2014, the Temporary Protection Regulation was issued. The number of registered Syrian refugees living in Turkey under the temporary protection regime enacted by the Government of Turkey reached over 3 million by November 2017 (UNHCR, 2017).

2 See the proviancial breakdown of Syrian refugees in Turkey (UNHCR, 2018).

3 For example, «Suriyeli dilenci çocuklar kamplara gönderildi» (“Syrian beggar children were sent to camps”) Hürriyet, 24.02.2016.

4 This anxiety was exemplified in a hashtag targeting Syrian migrants that became one of the trending topics worldwide on Twitter: #UlkemdeSuriyeliIstemiyorum (I don't want Syrians in my country). Selin Girit, “Turks hit back at Erdogan plan to give Syrians citizenship”, bbcnews 05.07.2016, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36704791. On the citizenship plans, see “Erdoğan: Suriyeli kardeşlerimize vatandaşlık vereceğiz” (Erdoğan, “We will Grand Citizsenship to Our Syrian Brothers”), Cumhuriyet, 02.07.2016.

5 Media scanning research by the Hrant Dink Foundation (2017) revealed the increase in the frequency of negative framing of the Syrians in Turkey from the year 2015 to 2017.

6 See major dailies from July 7 to 10, 2017. “Pregnant Syrian Woman was Raped and Killed with her baby in Turkey’s Northeast, Hurriyet Daily, July 7, 2017, Access: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/pregnant-syrian-woman-raped-killed-with-baby-in-turkeys-northwest–115230

7 The media landscape of the last two decades represents polarized political landscape, along the religiously conservative/pro‐government (e.g., Yeni Şafak) and liberal/secular/anti government divide. This is parallel to the principal groups’ media ownership, listed by Kaya and Çakmur (2010):Ciner Yayın Holding (mainstream); Çukurova Medya Grubu (mainstream); Doğan Medya Grubu (mainstream); and conservative/Islamist/pro‐government Albayrak Medya Grubu and Çalık Medya Grubu. Major five popular liberal dailies  namely Hürriyet, Sabah, Milliyet, Habertürk and Vatan were owned by first three groups. Another mainstream paper is secular Cumhuriyet has been owned by the Cumhuriyet Foundation since the death of Berin Nadi in 2001.

8 In this study, social representation is defined as a type of knowledge of a group that is developed and shared by social ties and reflects the common social reality of a particular group.

9 Baharuddin and Hamid (2014: 21), referring to the main framing theory of Pan and Kosicki (1993), differentiate two means of structuring frames: by syntactical structures (using particular words or phrases in news story headlines) and by thematic structures (hypotheses or casual sequences). Syntactical structures are more frequent than thematic structures (Sieff, 2003:264).

10 This category included a few news items about ISIS violence against Ezidi women and Syrian LGBT people.

11 The data shows that in 2014, 53.3% news items (40 out of 70 ) framed Syrian women as a threat to Turkish women.

12 Of the following news item exemplifies such blaming: “Suriyeliler denizdeki kadını böyle taciz etti” (This is way Syrians Harass Women in the Sea), Yeniçağ 01.07.2017, Access: http://www.yenicaggazetesi.com.tr/suriyeliler-denizdeki-kadini-boyle-taciz-etti-167244h.htm