Migration under in the Shadow of Borders: A Sociological Study on Migrant Smuggling within the Context of the Film “Daha”

Abstract

This study focuses on the migration experiences of Syrians in Turkey to Europe through migrant smuggling. A social profile of migrant smugglers and illegal immigrants have created what kind of spatial organization in the border regions of Turkey for illegal immigration, immigrant smugglers, illegal immigrants viewpoints in the direction of an invariant face uncovered smuggling of migrants, migrant smuggling and how a power struggle, resistance and re-host the spaces of domination and immigrant identity and collective memory in the understanding of the role and function of symbols that constitutes the main problem of this study. In the study, migrant smuggling was examined sociologically through the movie “Daha” and some results were obtained as a result of this examination. Migrant traffickers were understood to be people who made money off illegal immigrants and used violence on them, raping women, driving them into prostitution, leaving patients and children to die. It was established that a place known as Kandali was built in the border region of Turkey, where illegal immigrants were imprisoned in warehouses and treated without any kind of human dignity. It is concluded that illegal immigrants engrave various symbols on the walls of the warehouse where they stay, these symbols transform the warehouse into a social memory space and represent the hopes, desires, wishes, expectations, freedoms and liberations of immigrants. As a result, it is understood that illegal immigrants continue their struggle to reach the target country despite their problems.