A sociological research on disasters preparation processes of immigrants: The case of van city

Turkey's strategic location has made it an important transit and settlement area for migrants. Van Province has been significantly affected by these migration movements, and the problems and adaptation processes faced by migrant families have been the subject of various studies. The difficulties experienced by migrants include language barriers, economic hardships, social exclusion and cultural adaptation problems. In addition, the uncertainty and security problems brought about by illegal migration create serious challenges for both migrants and host communities. Individuals in the migration process generally flee from challenging conditions such as war, poverty and human rights violations in their own countries in the hope of a better life. Turkey has taken important steps in protecting and supporting migrants' human rights by developing policies in line with international protection and refugee law during this process. However, it is emphasized that more comprehensive strategies and international cooperation are necessary to solve the problems faced by migrants. Migration has a transformative effect not only for migrants but also for host communities in terms of social, economic and cultural aspects, and therefore migration management is a multidimensional issue that must be addressed with the participation of all stakeholders. The disaster-migration relationship is one of the important fields of study in sociology. Disasters are events that deeply affect human life, and migration has an important place among these effects. The destruction and migration movements that occur after disasters require people to adapt to new conditions economically, socially, and psychologically. In this process, the difficulties that individuals face are usually too great to be overcome by individual efforts; overcoming this requires extensive cooperation and coordination. The disruption of social order, the breakdown of routine, and the emergence of new interaction processes after a disaster are important points to focus on in disaster studies. In our field research, it was observed that most migrants were not prepared for disasters and their disaster awareness levels were low. Therefore, this study touched on the relationship between disaster and migration; and focused on the disaster preparation processes and post-disaster situations of migrants in the countries they migrated to. In addition, the fragility of migrants and whether they had disaster awareness were investigated in the field. In the light of the findings obtained, a general opinion was reached. This opinion was found to be that the migrants' disaster awareness was weak.