Analysis of discourses on Syrian refugees in the new media within the context of nationalism, gender and citizenship

The mass immigration movements in the twenthy first century have re-opened the discussions of immigration policies and border security. In this context, political discourses, social memory and identity elements have been reproduced by circulating them through mass media. Mass immigration movements have also triggered discourses on citizenship, gender roles and relations and nationalism that claims to represent the essence of the national border in receiving countries. The main purpose of this thesis is to analyze how collective memories and identitities have been reproduced and how dominant discourses have been re-circulated in the new media about Syrian refugees within the context of nationalism, gender and citizenship. For this purpose, the news published by the national media organs on the social media platform and the written reader comments to these news, as well as personally produced contents were analyzed by using discourse analysis technique. Although at the beginning of the study an intersectionality perspective was not aimed to utilized, data analyses resulted in the discovery of how nationalism, gender and citizenship-based discourses are interrelated and how they reinforce each other. Thus, the first contribution of this thesis is to underline the importance of adopting an intersectionality of nationalism, citizenship and gender relations perspective while investigating asylum and refugee issues in Turkey. The second contribution of this thesis is that adopting an intersectionality of nationalism, citizenship and gender relations perspective while investigating asylum and refugee issues would contribute to the understanding of immigrants and refugees integration processes.