Turkish Migrants and Transnational Media

This research project focuses on Turkish transnational media and its impacts on Turkish migrants living in the Netherlands. In particular, Turkish transnational television’s affects on Turkish women migrants are analysed by in-depth interviews. 28 Turkish women are interviewed about their transnational television use and the implications of it. This thesis explores transnational television’s affects on Turkish women’s identity constructions, their attachment to home/host countries and their integration processes in the Netherlands. It investigates theories about migrant populations, identity constructions and integration. Furthermore, it makes use of previous research done in the area. The main research question of this thesis is: ‘How do Turkish transnational television channels influence second generation Turkish women living in the Netherlands in the process of negotiating their identities?’ The sub-questions are: ‘How did the arrival of transnational television change the daily lives of Turkish women living in the Netherlands and how did it change their attachment to their home country and host country?’ and ‘What is the nature of the relationship between integration and consuming transnational television?’ Accordingly, this thesis focuses on the themes of; integration, social life, emotional attachment to the homeland, language use and transnational television’s implications on these. Moreover, it investigates Turkish migrants’ experiences of discrimination to discover about their relations with the Dutch society. Interviews illustrate concrete results about the above-mentioned subjects. The results indicate that Turkish transnational television has major implications on Turkish migrants’ identities which are constructed in between the Netherlands and Turkey. Another finding demonstrates that Turkish migrants get more attached to Turkey after the arrival of Turkish transnational television to the Netherlands. They started to allocate more time on watching television and their social lives changed significantly. Lastly, the interviews show that Turkish transnational television slowed down the integration of Turkish migrants to the Netherlands.