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Transnational Media and Migrants in Europe: the Case of the Mediated Turkish-Kurdish Ethno-National Conflict

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Transnational Media and Migrants in Europe: the Case of the Mediated Turkish-Kurdish Ethno-National Conflict Transnational Media and Migrants in Europe: The Case of the mediated Turkish-Kurdish Ethno-National Conflict A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Yilmaz Keles School of Social Sciences Department of Sociology and Communications Brunel University July 2011 1 Full Title of Thesis Transnational Media and Migrants in Europe: The Case of the mediated Turkish-Kurdish Ethno-National Conflict Short Title of Thesis Transnational Media Audiences and Conflict: Turks and Kurds in Europe 2 Abstract This PhD examines the role of the transnational media in articulating and mobilizing different political and identity positions for migrants. It explores the complex linkages between Kurdish and Turkish transnational ethnic media and migrant communities. It is based on 74 in-depth interviews and 6 focus groups with Kurdish and Turkish migrants of diverse age, gender, political affiliation, occupation and length of migration in London, Berlin and Stockholm. Drawing upon the concepts of “imagined community” (Anderson 1991) and “banal nationalism” (Billig 1995), it seeks to understand how migrants make sense of the media representations of the ethno-national conflict between the Turkish state and the Kurds and how they position themselves in relation to these media texts. The thesis explores how the media impact differentially on migrants’ views and ethnic identities in the three countries. This study argues that transnational media speak on behalf of the nation to the nation, even if the members of these imagined national communities live in different places, connecting people across different geographical spaces and thus building transnational imagined communities. They create a sense of belonging to a meaningful imagined community defined as “our” nation. The mediated Turkish-Kurdish ethno-national conflict has contributed to this transnational imagined community. The analysis of interviews found that the mediated conflict has hardened ethnic-based divisions and differentiation between Kurdish and Turkish migrants in Europe. Transnational media have contributed to deterritorialization, differentiation and division among migrants. Kurds and Turks have developed distinct identities in Europe and cannot be viewed any longer as a homogeneous group. The thesis concludes by suggesting a three-way framework for the analysis of ethno-national identities of migrants, taking into account firstly the country of settlement, secondly Turkish and thirdly Kurdish media as significant in constructing imagined national communities. 3 Transnational Media and Migrants in Europe: The Case of the mediated Turkish-Kurdish Ethno-National Conflict Contents ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................................ 2 TRANSNATIONAL MEDIA AND MIGRANTS IN EUROPE: THE CASE OF THE MEDIATED TURKISH-KURDISH ETHNO-NATIONAL CONFLICT ......................................................... 4 CONTENTS ................................................................................................................................................................ 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................................... 8 ACRONYMS ........................................................................................................................................................ 10 INTRODUCTION: TRANSNATIONAL MEDIA AND MIGRANTS IN EUROPE: THE CASE OF THE TURKISH-KURDISH ETHNO-NATIONAL CONFLICT .................................................. 12 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................................... 12 2. THE RESEARCH ................................................................................................................................................... 15 3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS ........................................................................................................................................ 17 4. THE STUDY OF KURDISH AND TURKISH MIGRANTS IN GERMANY, THE UK AND SWEDEN ................................... 17 5. THE ORIGINALITY OF THE RESEARCH ................................................................................................................. 19 5. OUTLINE OF CHAPTERS ....................................................................................................................................... 22 CHAPTER I: “NATIONALISM HAS GONE MOBILE” ............................................................................... 24 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .................................................................................................................................... 24 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................................... 24 2. THEORETICAL DEBATES ABOUT NATIONS AND NATIONALISM ............................................................................ 25 2.1. Primordialist and Modernist Approaches to the Study of Nationalism ........................................................... 25 2.1.1. Primordialists .................................................................................................................................................................... 26 2.1.2. The Modernists ................................................................................................................................................................. 27 2.2. Anderson’s framework of “imagined communities” ....................................................................................... 28 2.2.1. Refining Anderson’s framework ................................................................................................................... 31 2.2.1.1 Ethnic Cores ................................................................................................................................................................... 31 2.2.1.2 Third World Nationalism: Model or Original ..................................................................................................................... 31 2.2.1.3. Nationalism and Multilingualism ..................................................................................................................................... 33 2.2.1.4. Contestations of the imagined community ...................................................................................................................... 34 2.2.1.5. Postmodern critics ......................................................................................................................................................... 36 2.3. Billig’s Framework of Banal Nationalism ...................................................................................................... 37 2.3.1. Refining Billig’s framework of Banal Nationalism ...................................................................................... 39 2.3.1.1. Internal diversity ............................................................................................................................................................. 39 2.3.1.2. Oppositional Readings ................................................................................................................................................... 40 2.3.1.3. Transnational media and globalization ........................................................................................................................... 41 2.3.1.4. The blurred boundary between “hot” and “banal” nationalism ......................................................................................... 42 3. GRAMSCI’S CONCEPT OF HEGEMONY ................................................................................................................... 43 3.1. Civil society and state ..................................................................................................................................... 46 3.2. Gramscian ideas beyond Gramsci................................................................................................................... 47 3.3. The relevance of Gramscian concepts to the thesis ......................................................................................... 50 4. DIASPORA, TRANSNATIONAL DISCOURSE AND THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA ............................................................ 55 4.1. Concepts of the diaspora and transnationalism .............................................................................................. 55 4.1.1.Diaspora ............................................................................................................................................................................ 55 4.1.2. Transationalism ............................................................................................................................................ 59 CHAPTER II: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY .................................................................... 67 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................................... 67 2. DOING QUALITATIVE RESEARCH WITH MIGRANTS ............................................................................................... 68 2.1. The lack of data in
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