Nur SOYLU YALÇINKAYA, Sabahat Çiğdem BAĞCI

ULUSAL KİMLİK İNŞALARI VE ÖZCÜLÜĞÜN SIĞINMACI KARŞITI TUTUMLARA DAİR SONUÇLARI

Bu çalışma özcülük, ulusal kimlik inşaları ve Türkiye’de Suriyeli sığınmacılara olan yaklaşımlar arasındaki ilişkilere odaklanmaktadır. Özcülük kavramı, ırk ve cinsiyet gibi toplumsal olarak inşa edilen kategorileri sabit, doğal, keskin sınırları olan ve insanların özelliklerini belirleyen unsurlar olarak görme eğilimini içermektedir. Bu çalışma, özcülük kavramını genişleterek ulusal kimliğe uyarlamaktadır. Ulusal kimlik özcülüğü, ulusların net ve kesin sınırları olan, sabit yapılar olduğu ve ulus üyelerinin özelliklerini belirlediği düşüncelerine dayanmaktadır. Uluslarla ilgili özcü görüşler, belirli bir ulusun niteliklerinin nasıl görüldüğünü şekillendirebilir. Bu görüşler doğrultusunda ulusal kimlik daha kısıtlayıcı bir biçimde tanımlanabilir. Örneğin, ulusal kimliğin vurgusu, ortak vatandaşlık yerine, ortak etnik ve kültürel köken üzerine kurulabilir. Bu tür bir etno-kültürel kimlik inşası da toplum içindeki etnik ve kültürel farklılıklar taşıyan gruplara karşı dışlayıcı yaklaşımları yordayabilir. Bu çalışmada, aracı değişkenli bu modeli yapısal eşitlik modellemesi yöntemiyle test etmek için 500 katılımcıdan veri topladık. Analiz sonuçlarına göre, ulusal özcülük, etno-kültürel ulusal kimlik tanımlamasını yordamakta, bu aracı değişken de sığınmacıları tehdit olarak görme ve sığınmacı karşıtı politikaları destekleme değişkenlerini yordamaktadır. Ulusal kimliği vatandaşlık üzerinden tanımlama eğilimi ise modelde aracı değişken rolü üstlenmemiştir. Çalışmamız, özcülük ve ulusal kimlik inşası alan yazınlarını bir araya getirmektedir. Bu sayede, topluma katılan sığınmacılar gibi ögelere karşı yaklaşımların psikolojik kökenlerinin anlaşılmasına katkı sunmaktadır. Bulgularımızın kuramsal ve uygulamalı sonuçları bu eksende tartışılmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Özcülük, Ulusal Kimlik, Suriyeli Sığınmacılar, Göçmenler

CONSTRUCTIONS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY AND ESSENTIALISM: IMPLICATIONS FOR ANTI-REFUGEE POLICY SUPPORT

The current study investigates the relationships between essentialism, constructions of national identity, and responses toward Syrian refugees in Turkey. We draw upon the concept of essentialism, which refers to tendencies to view socially constructed categories such as race and gender as fixed, natural, strictly bounded, and informative about people’s characteristics. We extend this concept to national essentialism, which we define as beliefs that the nation is a fixed entity with clear and strict boundaries that defines the qualities of its members. We argue that such an essentialist way of thinking will predict tendencies to define a particular national identity such as Turkishness in a more exclusionary way, by emphasizing common ancestral and cultural roots, rather than by emphasizing civic bonds such as citizenship. Such an ethno-cultural construction of the national identity, in turn, is likely to feed into tendencies to exclude ethnically and culturally diverse immigrant populations within the society. We have collected data from a sample of 500 participants to test our proposed mediation model using structural equation modelling. Our analyses have shown that national essentialism predicts endorsement of an ethno-cultural construction of the Turkish national identity, which, in turn, predicts greater perceived threat posed by refugees, and greater support for anti-refugee policies. Endorsement of a civic construction of national identity does not play a mediating role in the model. Our study connects the literatures on essentialism and constructions of national identity to shed light on the psychological roots of public responses toward newcomers to societies such as refugees. We discuss the theoretical and applied implications of our findings.

Keywords:

Essentialism, National Identity, Syrian Refugees, Immigrants,

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