CEU eTD Collection (2026); Yilmaz, Muhammed: How Ethnic Minorities Perceive and Respond to Newcomers: A Study of Kurds and Syrians an Aydin, Turkey

CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2026
Author Yilmaz, Muhammed
Title How Ethnic Minorities Perceive and Respond to Newcomers: A Study of Kurds and Syrians an Aydin, Turkey
Summary This study investigates how Kurds; a native ethnic minority with a distinctive history of migration and stigmatization, perceive and evaluate Syrian newcomers who have recently settled in long-established
Kurdish migrant neighborhoods in Aydın.
Drawing on Jenkins’s theory of social identity, boundary literature, and insights from social psychology on intergroup relations, the study adopts a constructionist perspective to reveal how the boundaries of
Kurdishness are produced and negotiated. Based on fieldwork and in-depth interviews, it examines the perceived similarities and differences shaping inclusive and exclusive attitudes.
The findings show that identifications intersect and emerge as moral articulations, challenging explanations that reduce anti-immigrant attitudes solely to national or taken-for-granted ethnic identities, and demonstrating how these processes are shaped within a specific micro-context
Supervisor Stewart, Michael
Department Nationalism Studies MA
Full texthttps://www.etd.ceu.edu/2026/yilmaz_muhammed.pdf

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