IMMIGRANTS AS VICTIMS OF THE SCAPEGOAT MECHANISM IN THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

In the COVID-19 pandemic, the strategy of constructing the disease as a threat caused by foreigners, and attempts to put the blame on the "other" went hand in hand with the outbreak. The accusatory index fingers were mostly aimed at immigrants. The xenophobic rhetoric that immigrants are potential carriers of the virus and pose a deadly health threat has become a central theme for populist politicians advocating curbing immigration. Under the pretext of containing the spread of the virus, some governments have instrumentalized the pandemic to justify strict immigration policies towards immigrants. This article attempts to provide a theoretical explanation of the tendency to scapegoat immigrants in crises. In addition, the news reports from reliable media organizations and the publications prepared by international organizations are examined and the practices of blaming immigrants for COVID-19 are evaluated. The study reveals that some politicians scapegoated immigrants by instrumentalizing COVID-19 to legitimize anti-immigration and these politicians, who were determined to have populist nationalist tendencies, used metaphors such as war, enemy, invasion in their discourses in order to construct the outbreak as an external threat. The study also displays that the tendency to blame immigrants is based on historical and cultural prejudices and that the infodemic is one of the most important factors that ignite the scapegoat mechanism