Boundaries of brotherhood: Syrian refugee reception and national identity contestation in Turkey

Püttmann, Friedrich (2024) Boundaries of brotherhood: Syrian refugee reception and national identity contestation in Turkey. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Abstract

Theory suggests that citizens’ religious and ethnic identities shape how inclusive they are towards refugees. This thesis investigates the case of Turkish citizens and Syrian refugees. It draws on three years of fieldwork, 115 in-depth interviews with neighbourhood chiefs (muhtars) in three Turkish cities (Izmir, Konya, Şanlıurfa), and a nationally representative original survey of 2,539 participants, including an experiment. Previous research has found Turkish citizens’ relation to Syrian refugees to be “paradoxical”, fluctuating between inclusion and exclusion. Using a framework of social and symbolic boundaries, this thesis resolves this paradox by identifying a split between the two boundary types in this case. The thesis argues that Turkish citizens’ religious and ethnic identities make little difference in shaping their social boundaries with Syrian refugees, i.e. their willingness to interact with them, but do make a difference for their symbolic boundaries, i.e. their willingness to accept Syrian refugees as part of Turkey. Socially, exclusion is prevalent and notably justified by specific narratives for each identity: secular Turks “defend Turkey’s freedom and modernity” against conservative Muslim Syrians; religiously conservative Turks “prove their Muslimness” by excluding “fake Muslim” Syrians; and ethnically Kurdish or Arab Turkish citizens may care for their relatives from Syria, but may view privileging all co-ethnics as “racist”. In the case of symbolic boundaries, religiously conservative Turkish citizens are more inclusive of the refugees than secular ones, while ethnically Kurdish or Arab Turkish citizens are more inclusive than ethnic Turks. This inclusion does not result from feelings of cultural proximity, however, but from the quest of Turkey’s historically marginalised to change the boundaries of Turkish national identity, redefining its meaning and thereby enhancing their own position within it. Turkey’s Syrian refugee reception is thus a new arena of its national identity contestation, reflecting – like elsewhere – struggles over recognition, belonging, and dominance.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Additional Information:	© 2024 Friedrich Püttman
Library of Congress subject classification:	H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races J Political Science > JC Political theory J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration
Sets:	Departments > European Institute
Supervisor:	Gursoy, Yaprak
URI:	http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/4850

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