A media study on the relationship between refugees and asylum seekers in Türkiye and crime

How migrants are represented in the media is important in terms of influencing the views and behaviors of the people of the host country towards migrants. This academic study examined the migrants and crime-themed news content published on the digital platforms of Sabah, Habertürk, and Sözcü newspapers during the 10-year period from April 2011 to March 2021 and examined which crimes committed by migrants were reflected in the news, the distribution of crime-themed news by years, and in what type of crime related news migrant groups are more victims and in what type of crime related news they are perpetrators. A total of 2737 news with the theme of migrants and crime were identified in the newspapers. In 1516 of the news illegal crossing, in 473 of them migrant smuggling, in 259 of them terrorism, in 219 of them forced prostitution and in 206 of them murder took place. It has been observed that the number of crime news published in 2011 has increased approximately 14.2 times in five years and 35.1 times in 10 years. It has been determined that 2182 of the news reports are directly related to the crimes of Syrian refugees and other migrants against the Republic of Turkey, 179 of them are related to crimes committed by Syrian refugees and other migrant groups against Turkish citizens, and 399 of them are related to crimes committed by Turkish citizens against Syrian refugees and other migrants. These findings are discussed in comparison with the Ministry of Justice's crime data on foreign nationals.