What Makes Turkey and Turkish Immigrants a Cultural Polarization Issue in Europe? Evidence from European Right-Wing Populist Politics

Abstract

In spite of Turkey’s long history of candidacy to European Union (EU) membership intense trade relations with European countries and the presence of Turks as one of the largest minority ethnic groups in Europe Turkey and Turkish immigrants have still been instrumentalized as politically polarizing issues in European societies. This study aims to provide a comparative analysis of this instrumentalization process in European politics by asking how Turkish immigrants and Turkey are presented as a culturally polarizing issue within the framework of “cultural security” by right-wing populist political discourse. In this regard three specific cases are analyzed by focusing on the instrumentalization of Turkish immigrants and Turkey’s accession to the EU. The first case is the Brexit referendum process in the United Kingdom (UK) especially the Vote Leave campaign. The second case is the Austrian domestic politics in the aftermath of the “refugee (reception) crisis” and eve of the 2016 Austrian Presidential elections. The third case is the rise of Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in Germany and its entrance to German federal parliament. © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.