The study argues that in deeply polarized societies, native-born citizens may come to view migrants not just as cultural outsiders, but as potential allies of rival domestic groups, thus posing indirect threats to their own status and influence.
Kerem Morgul, assistant professor of sociology at Elon University, has co-authored a new study exploring why secular, left-leaning Turks express high levels of hostility toward Syrian refugees, despite their generally liberal and cosmopolitan worldviews.
Published in the “Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies,” the article challenges conventional assumptions about who holds anti-refugee views and why.
Drawing on a mixed-methods design, the study finds that although secular Turks generally exhibit more cosmopolitan attitudes than other members of the Turkish majority, this openness does not extend to Syrian refugees. Even after accounting for other factors, secularism remains a strong predictor of opposition to integration policies for Syrians, suggesting that a secular or liberal worldview does not necessarily shield individuals from anti-migrant attitudes, particularly toward Muslim or Middle Eastern groups.
The study finds that this pattern is driven by perceived political and lifestyle threats that secular Turks experience under President Erdoğan’s increasingly authoritarian and Islamist regime. On one hand, many secular Turks fear that Syrian refugees could strengthen Erdoğan’s electoral base. On the other, they associate Syrians with Turkey’s growing estrangement from the West and the erosion of secularism and women’s rights. Thus, unlike in Western Europe, anti-refugee sentiment among secular Turks is not simply a reaction to religious traditionalism, but reflects deeper anxieties about their group’s declining power and cultural standing in Erdoğan’s “new Turkey.”
Extending Herbert Blumer’s group position theory, the study argues that in deeply polarized societies, native-born citizens may come to view migrants not just as cultural outsiders, but as potential allies of rival domestic groups, thus posing indirect threats to their own status and influence.