Abstract:

This study examines the role of advertising posters in public relations activities in encouraging immigrants to learn German and integrate to the society they reside in the context of social integration. Just as millions of people are fleeing war, violence, hunger or natural disasters today, more are leaving their countries to find better education, employment and investment opportunities and by doing this, they continue to live their lives far away from the land they were bornin. While looking into migration routes of these people, it is seen that migration today is also an indicator of global inequality in a sense. Social integration, which is one of the concepts that has emerged with the increase in the number of global immigrants, is integration of migrating individuals to the society that they live in. In the process of social integration in developed countries, individuals are not left on their own. Public institutions, civil organizations and locals in receiving countries help migrants in the process of social integration. Germany has been one of the most preferred countries by millions of immigrants, mostly Turks, since the 1960s. In addition to the public institutions responsible for the social integration of immigrants in the country, semi-official institutions and non-governmental organizations also carry out communication activities on the issue of social integration. In this study, three of the twenty-seven advertising posters highlighting the key role of learning German from the public relations activities of the German Integration Foundation (Deutschlandstiftung Integration) (DSI) encouraging immigrants to social integration were selected as samples. These three advertising posters were analysed with Roland Barthes semiotics approach. In the advertising posters examined, immigrants that are learning German are being presented within the myth of “success” and “fame”.

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