Being an Afghan asylum seeker in Turkey: Reflections from the media and field

This research focused on Afghan asylum seekers, who are generally less visible in the forced migration and integration literature in Turkey. Afghans, who have existed in Turkey for years and constitute the second largest refugee group, have generally been neglected in the migration literature until the EU and Turkey border tensions in 2016, since they do not represent a mass migration. However, after this date, studies on being the second largest refugee group, migration experiences, and integration and integration processes started to gain momentum. The main purpose of this research is to analyze the meaning of being an Afghan asylum seeker in Turkey within the framework of media representations of Afghan refugees, their views on these representations, their migration experiences and their views on other immigrants in Turkey. In the study, which was designed with qualitative research methods, three newspapers were determined in the study group and evaluated according to critical discourse analysis, and in-depth interviews were conducted with 28 Afghan asylum seekers in Konya, a satellite city that has been hosting refugees for many years. As a result of the research, it is concluded that Afghan refugees are presented through negative representations in the news. According to the findings ın the identity acquisition process of the participants, factors such as migration experiences, social and occupational status, gender, hierarchical order regarding ethnicity and social networks play an important role. Keywords: Forced migration, Afghan, conditional refugee, asylum seeker, media discourse