Expert views and local responses towards Iraqi Turkmen humanitarian refugees in Ankara, Turkey

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Tezin Türü: Doktora

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Sosyoloji Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2017

Öğrenci: ÇİĞDEM MANAP KIRMIZIGÜL

Danışman: HEDİYE SİBEL KALAYCIOĞLU

Özet:

This dissertation is based on the stories and perceptions of the local people about therefugees in their daily relationships in Ankara. With an aim to reveal the localpeople’s perspective about the refugees, the fieldwork of this study was carried out inAbidinpaşa District, where the population of Iraqi Turkmens is concentrated inAnkara. The local people’s perspectives about the refugees are analyzed based onSimmel’s concept of “stranger”, and relying on Park’s “marginal man”, Siu’s“sojourner”, and Bauman’s “stranger”. Related to the official discourse producedabout refugees in Turkey, the local people consider the refugees as temporary andassume that they will go back to their country when the conflict is over there. Theconcept of “consanguinity”, which facilitates the acceptance of the Iraqi Turkmensby the local people, is harmed since these people’s stay in Turkey extends. Thus, thisstudy focuses on the processes of transformation of the Iraqi Turkmens into“strangers” and their marginalization in the eyes of the local people. The definition ofthe refugees as “stranger” and/or “guest” leads to the crystallization of the divisionbetween “us” and “them”, and sets various borders between the two groups in manyways.