Twitter-based analysis of anti-refugee discourses in Türkiye

Abstract

As the number of refugees in Türkiye continues to grow, the constructed discourse of welcoming refugees with open arms has weakened, transforming the image of refugees from ‘guests’ to ‘threats’. Social media platforms are used to spread hate speech, discrimination, racism, and otherization. Drawing on the Corpus-assisted Critical Discourse Analysis approach, the present research investigates how language is used to produce online discourses in tweets about refugees in the aftermath of a major social triggering event in Türkiye. This mixed-methods study incorporated both a corpus analysis of tweets posted on Twitter over a specific period, as well as a critical discourse analysis of a randomly selected subset of 100 tweets. The findings revealed that the prevalence of discontent and frustration of the host population against refugees has turned into a discourse of discrimination, hate, and racism. Moreover, a negative portrayal of refugees was created and maintained not only through lexical choices, but also characteristics attributed to them, as well as assumptions and prejudices about them.