İstanbul'da ki düzensiz Afgan göçmenlerin kente entegrasyonu: Yeni Mahalle örneği

Turkey, located on the border with regions of instability and conflict, has been considered as a transit country in migration flows. However, the socio-political and economic developments in the 2000s have gradually transformed Turkey into a migrant receiving country. The main subject of this thesis is the survival/urban integration tactics of the irregular Afghan migrants living in Yeni Mahalle neighborhood of Istanbul in the absence of both state assistance and NGOs services. The existing academic studies on local and urban aspects of the migrants' integration—particularly the ones dealing with Afghan migrants' integration to Istanbul—seem to be inadequate. The thesis will explore how these young and mostly bachelor Afghan migrants have settled in Yeni Mahalle, how they create a living space for themselves, how they are integrated into the working life, how they are solving their daily problems, and how they develop their survival strategies based on keeping appropriate distance with the natives in the absence of macro policies.