Refugee and the refugees in Turkish novels (2000-2025)

This study examines how the concepts of refugeeness and refugees are addressed in Turkish novels written between 2000-2025. As a result of political crises, wars and civil wars experienced in Turkey's border and close neighbors, refugee movement to Turkey began. Refugees, who were initially seen as guests, became permanent as the crises in their own countries continued and over time their interaction with the host people increased. Over time, this interaction began to find a place in literature. In particular, many works in the genre of stories and novels have dealt with events involving refugee characters. In this study, novel was chosen as a literary genre and a comprehensive field survey was conducted on the subject. Novels dealing with the subject of refugees were identified, divided into two groups as refugee migration to Turkey and refugee migration from Turkey, and migration to Turkey was the focus of this study. After this separation, 24 novels were reached and 18 of these novels were included in the thesis. Hıdır Işık's novel Mülteci Umuda Yolculuk (2010) was not included in the thesis upon the author's request. The other five novels, although they generally mention migration and immigration, were not included in the thesis because the authors focused only on the subject without any aesthetic concerns. The process of refugees coming to Turkey and their struggle to hold on to life in Turkey are reflected in the novels, and these themes are followed in this study. Considering the relationship between literature and other social sciences, the belonging of refugees to society as individuals and the society's view of refugees are examined in the novels and the findings obtained are analyzed with scientific methods.