An analysis of the official discourse on Syrian immigrants in Turkey in the context of social studies textbooks

In Turkey, which has hosted millions of Syrian immigrants since 2011, the way official discourse produces the Syrian immigrant identity and whether this production is included in the social studies textbooks is important in terms of the healthy conduct of the migration process by immigrants and local people in Turkey. In this study, the discourses of official discourse actors about Syrian immigrants analyzed by absence analysis method; the findings were compared with the representations of Syrian immigrants in social studies textbooks. The absence analysis method is a method used to find out what is and is not in the discourse. With the absence analysis method, between the years 2018-2021, the discourse produced through descriptive terms of Syrian immigrants has been researched in official discourse. It has been determined that there is no rights-based approach and that there is a charity-based approach in official discourse. In the Social Studies textbooks used by the Ministry of National Education as a official institution and used in middle schools between the years 2018-2021; when researched the descriptive terms of Syrian immigrants in it has been determined that there is not a rights-based approach towards Syrian immigrants in the textbooks, but a right-based approach. And the existence of a charity-based approach discussed with context information, in terms of being both in official discourse and in Social Studies textbooks discourse.