Visual representation of irregular migration in the Turkish press: Afghan migration after the Taliban regime

In the contemporary era, a total of 281 million individuals have relinquished their domiciles due to diverse factors, undertaking migration towards locales deemed more habitable on a short, medium, or long-term basis. Those compelled to forsake their native territories, embarking on a perilous journey in pursuit of enhanced living conditions, find themselves concurrently grappling with a myriad of social, cultural, economic, and political challenges within the host nations. Simultaneously, the media organs of these host nations tend to categorize these individuals as the "other," subjecting them to a negative portrayal. The resultant negative constructs propagated by the media not only give rise to an exacerbation of hate speech, biases, polarization, Islamophobic proclivities, anti-migrant movements, societal distrust, and discriminatory policies but also hinder the integration processes of migrant groups and foster an environment conducive to severe human rights transgressions. To mitigate these prospective issues, an exhaustive examination of the representation of migration in the media is imperative. Subsequently, based on the findings of such analyses, it is crucial to devise sustainable solution strategies aimed at ameliorating the problematic depiction of migration in the media. A modern state is endowed with diverse responsibilities encompassing the assurance of citizen security, the establishment of an equitable legal system, the provision of fundamental services, the augmentation of economic well-being, and the encouragement of societal harmony. States falling short in fulfilling or incapable of meeting these obligations are denoted as "fragile states." Within such contexts, the ruling elite tends to prioritize their own material interests over those of the populace, leading to the exclusion of the majority from governance. The economically disadvantaged segments face impediments in accessing resources for ameliorating their circumstances, societal allegiance often aligns with religious or communal affiliations, internal strife and egregious human rights transgressions become prevalent, natural calamities induce profound economic crises, international aid fails to reach the necessitous, terrorist organizations experience empowerment, meager investments are allocated to public hygiene and healthcare systems, weak policies hamper border control efforts, and the management of migration movements becomes untenable. Afghanistan exemplifies a state structure characterized by fragility, a condition that has precipitated substantial migration trends. Presently, global nations host in excess of seven million registered Afghan individuals, while precise data pertaining to irregular Afghan migrants on a global scale remains elusive. Afghans, constituting one of the most extensive migrant populations globally, have been systematically abandoning their native land for over four decades due to a complex array of factors, including economic hardships, internal conflicts, political instability, severe human rights violations, limited educational opportunities, natural disasters, poverty, food insecurity, ethnic and religious discrimination. Their collective migration, motivated by a quest for stability, has consistently led them to choose Turkey as their destination. The humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan escalated following the Taliban's reassertion of control on August 15, 2021, sparking a renewed surge of irregular migration towards Turkey. At present, Turkey hosts around 150,000 registered and over 300,000 unregistered Afghan migrants. Despite ranking as the second-largest migrant group in Turkey after Syrians, the prevailing focus in the national literature on media and migration pertains predominantly to Syrians admitted under temporary protection. The representation of Afghans in the Turkish press is underexplored in the national literature, and studies dedicated to the visual representation of Afghans are conspicuously scarce in both national and international discourse. Significantly, no identified research specifically addresses how the phenomenon of irregular Afghan migration to Turkey, following the Taliban's resurgence, is portrayed in news texts and photographs within the Turkish media. This doctoral research aimed to undertake a comprehensive exploration of the representation of irregular Afghan migration to Turkey in the Turkish press following the resurgence of the Taliban in governance. The overarching objective was to develop sustainable solution strategies for ameliorating the nuanced challenges associated with the media portrayal of migration, grounded in the empirical findings of the investigation. While the primary focus was on the visual representation of Afghan migrants through the analysis of news photographs, the study went beyond a singular dimension. It encompassed a parallel analysis of news texts to provide a holistic perspective on how both visual and textual elements collectively contributed to shaping the overall narrative of the news. Upon a critical review of extant literature on the subject within national and international contexts, it became evident that existing studies frequently confined their analyses of media representations of migration movements to specific temporal frameworks, employing limited coding templates. Consequently, these prior investigations fell short of offering comprehensive insights into the multifaceted nature of migration representation in the media. Diverging from these precedents, the present doctoral study sought to transcend such constraints. Specifically, it aimed to scrutinize the representation of irregular Afghan migration to Turkey in the Turkish press post the second Taliban administration, employing a holistic approach derived from all available coding frameworks in both national and international literature. Additionally, the study aimed to furnish a methodological framework to guide future research endeavors in this scholarly domain. This doctoral dissertation encompasses a comprehensive literature review consisting of two segments, primarily aimed at fortifying the research's theoretical underpinnings and articulating the hypotheses and methodology. The initial section provides a conceptual and theoretical framework pertaining to the visual representation of migration in media. Subsequently, the second section delves into the distinctive case of Afghan migration, offering a literature review that spans its historical context, causative factors, ramifications, and media portrayal. Drawing from this literature, four hypotheses have been formulated within the study. The first hypothesis (H1) posits that "the portrayal of irregular Afghan migrants in the Turkish press exhibits variation contingent upon the ideological orientations of newspapers." The second hypothesis (H2) asserts that "irregular Afghan migrants do not emerge prominently as central figures in news texts and photographs within the Turkish press." The third hypothesis (H3) posits that "in news texts and photographs within the Turkish press, Afghan males are featured more prominently than Afghan females." Lastly, the fourth hypothesis (H4) contends that "in news photographs within the Turkish press, irregular Afghan migrants are subjected to objectification." In the third section of the inquiry, elucidation is provided regarding the research methodology formulated for the purpose of scrutinizing the hypotheses. In this domain, the foundational constituents of the elected research methodology are initially expounded. Subsequently, the delineation extends to the explication of the universe, sample, and data collection techniques, all orchestrated in alignment with the objectives and hypotheses of the study. The procedural steps instituted to ascertain the veracity and reliability of the study are delineated. Elements excluded from the research are cogently expounded upon, accompanied by their respective rationales. Within the purview of the investigation, textual and visual representations pertaining to irregular Afghan migration were meticulously amassed from the web portals of periodicals characterized by diverse ideological perspectives, substantial circulations, and digital news outlets, notably, BirGün, Hürriyet, Sözcü, Yeni Şafak, and Cumhuriyet. Employing key terminologies such as "Afghanistan," "Afghan," "Taliban," "Afghan migrant," "Afghan refugee," "Afghan asylum seeker," and "irregular Afghan migrant," the official record of irregular migration was chronologically documented. The temporal span of data collection spans from August 15, 2021, the date of the official recording of irregular Afghan migration, to August 15, 2023, marking the commencement of the research segment within the doctoral thesis. News articles and photographs, collected through manual means devoid of web crawling bots or automated scripts, were systematically cataloged within an Excel spreadsheet. In the inaugural phase of the research, textual materials underwent content analysis, encompassing all categories articulated within the corpus of national and international scholarly literature. The ensuing phase entailed a comparable content analysis of visual materials, specifically news photographs, nested within the framework of these predefined categories. The resultant data underwent visualization and analytical scrutiny through the employment of graphical tools. The examination revealed that newspapers published a total of 1,156 news articles on irregular Afghan migration. In the news texts, Afghans were predominantly portrayed as main actors; however, they were often positioned at the center of negative events, reduced to statistical data, restricted in expressing their own experiences and stories, provided with minimal information about their identities, and stereotyped as "illegal, rapist, thief, aggressor, criminal, unskilled, terrorist, reactionary, guilty, dangerous, invader, ominous, or patriarchal." Additionally, it was observed that Afghan men were frequently highlighted in the news, and the legal statuses of Afghans were arbitrarily used. The analysis also identified 1,890 photographs in the news. In the news photographs, Afghans were mainly portrayed as main actors; however, they were often placed at the center of negative events, generalized, anonymized, their problems minimized, minimal information provided about their identities, reduced to physical movements and objects, and represented as illegal figures. Moreover, it has been determined that Afghan men are frequently highlighted in the photographs, and the representation of Afghan migration is constructed through men in both news texts and news photographs. Studies within both national and international literature that examine the representation of migration in the media typically analyze the portrayal of migration movements within a constrained coding template, often occurring during specific temporal periods. These studies reveal that the media's representation of migration is subject to fluctuations contingent upon the ideological inclinations of newspapers. In this doctoral dissertation, a comprehensive examination of all coding templates in national and international literature was conducted to scrutinize the representation of Afghan migration in the national press. The findings suggest that national media outlets, with divergent ideological perspectives, collectively designate Afghans as a common adversary, framing them as entities that should be excluded from the public sphere. These findings substantially refute the first hypothesis of the study. The results underscore that Afghans prominently feature as primary actors in a significant portion of news texts and photographs. However, in certain instances, Afghans are portrayed as individuals or groups dependent on a representative through whom their existence is mediated. These findings partially confirm the second hypothesis of the study. Furthermore, the study reveals a distinct prominence of Afghan males in news texts and photographs, indicating a gender-specific association of migration phenomena in the media. This substantiates the third hypothesis of the study to a large extent. The study's findings indicate that in photographs where Afghans take on the role of the main actors or in images where there is no discernible subject, they are reduced to objects, and their human dimensions are disregarded. Consequently, the fourth hypothesis of the study is confirmed. In conclusion, the study found that the second, third, and fourth hypotheses were partially or substantially validated, and the obtained findings were largely consistent with the existing literature. The concluding section of the doctoral dissertation provides a guide, considering all the findings, for the media to represent migrant groups in a balanced and human rights-compliant manner.