Residential mobility of Syrians living in Gaziantep

Since 2011, many academic studies have been conducted with Syrian refugees living in Turkey. However, both the scope and the number of studies with urban perspective remain limited. While the issues of spatial separation, ghettoization, place belonging and spatial integration came to the fore in the literature, residential mobility is still an unexplored area. The aims of this study are to reveal how the Syrians living in Gaziantep spread to metropolitan residential areas, how, how often, for what reasons, and when they move among different residential areas. For these purposes, a survey was applied to 2280 Syrians residing in 174 neighborhoods of Şahinbey and Şehitkâmil districts. In order to show and analyze the distribution of Syrians in urban residential areas, Moran's I and Monte-Carlo simulation indices as spatial autocorrelation methods were calculated within, as well as descriptive methods. The other studies in the literature, found out that the Syrian influx into cities has increased the residential mobility of the locals, and segregated regions have emerged. The dissimilarity index was calculated in order to determine whether the Syrian refugees and the locals live in Gaziantep together or in separate residential regions. Poisson regression model was used to understand whether the time spent in Gaziantep and the size of the household have effects on the mobility behaviors of Syrians. Finally, in order to reveal the spatial mobility patterns, a network analysis was carried out using two different clustering methods, one based on the public appraisal of the land and the other based on the ratio of Syrian refugees to the total neighborhood population. According to the findings, the distribution of Syrians living in Gaziantep is not random and ethnic enclaves have been formed. When the city is analyzed as a whole, spatial segregation is not high. It is revealed that 60 percent of the sample has been living in the first neighborhood they settled in Gaziantep after migration, while the mobile households move among neighborhoods in the same income group and towards neighborhoods with a low Syrian rate.