How does Turkish Twitter discuss Syrian Immigration to Turkey?

Our latest Twitter study on social media framings of Syrian immigration to Turkey answers to three key questions. (1) What are the main topics that the Turkish Twittersphere use while discussing Syrian immigration to Turkey? (2) How those topics changed across the first half of 2020 in response to international events. (3) What are the some impacts of COVID-19 pandemic and international conflicts on attitudes towards immigrants.

We analyzed nearly 300,000 tweets on the subject, posted in the first half of 2020, using the cutting edge NLP techniques, and reached two key findings.

Firstly, the volume of tweets that have been classified as “social benefit demands” intensified with COVID-19 pandemic.

Secondly, tweets with patriotic and militaristic content have a relatively higher rate of pro-immigrant posts. The volume of this topic surged after Turkish cross-border military offensive against the Syrian regime in late February 2020. (Operation Spring Shield)

We discuss these findings and provide following explanations.

(1) The main facet of anti-immigrant attitude of Turkish Twitter users is welfare chauvinism and COVID-19 pandemic just exacerbated that. The users also reacted very strongly to the public statements of policy makers about Turkey’s generosity to immigrants during the pandemic. On the other hand, cultural markers and way of life concerns are not as salient as in European countries.

(2) Ambitious foreign policy creates a sentiment of “patronizing tolerance” among host-society members. Some natives would tolerate immigrants as long as it reinforces their claims of moral superiority and embarrasses the rhetorical enemy.

Militaristic nationalism offers partial inclusion to immigrants under the rigid conditions of docility and gratitude. According to which, immigrants should have no say in matters that affect their lives and futures, including the ultimate decision to stay or leave.