Misinformation on Refugees: Surveying the Consequences, Perpetuators and Workable Solutions

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between misinformation and refugee integration and discusses the challenges and opportunities for fighting misinformation about immigrants in the Turkish context. To this end, we utilize in-depth interviews conducted between October 2021-January 2022 with Turkish citizens and migration experts working in the academia, non-governmental organizations and migration units of state and local government agencies. Our findings demonstrate that the prevalence of misinformation presenting immigrants as threats foster negative attitudes toward refugees and reinforce separationist and assimilationist acculturation orientations among the refugee community. Our expert interviews point to the lack of political will to fight misinformation about immigrants and suggest that resilience building, rather than misinformation correction can be a viable strategy that non-governmental organizations can adopt to combat misinformation.