This project, coordinated by Ezgi Elci, from ÖzU International Relations department and funded by  Heinrich Boll Stiftung Foundation analyzes party competition dynamics over the immigration issue in Turkey since 2016. Receiving more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees since 2011, Turkey stands as an understudied case in testing political party representation of popular attitudes towards immigrants. In the context of the European Union member states, the rise of anti-immigration attitudes among the electorate strengthened populist radical right parties, transformed mainstream politics, and significantly contributed to democratic backsliding. The case of Turkey stands as an anomaly to this pattern. 

The report comprises five main sections. First, it discusses how international migration has been contextualized and discussed in Turkey. Second, the critical junctures that have transformed the debate around the recent migration of Syrians were highlighted, followed by a brief discussion explaining data collection and methodology. A more detailed discussion is also provided at the end of the report as an appendix. Third, it presents the analysis and findings of temporal changes in anti-immigration rhetoric and Turkish political parties’ anti-immigration scores. This section also characterizes the anti-immigration debate along two dimensions: the salience of the issue and the tone of the rhetoric. Fourth, it discusses how political parties currently frame Syrians living in Turkey and evaluate their proposed migration policies. Finally, it concludes by offering several policy recommendations. It is important to note that the analysis here largely covers the period from 2011 to 2021, thereby setting the background for our follow-up analysis to come before the 2023 elections.

You can access the project report here.