Perception of professionals and administrators working in localadministrations towards immigrants and evaluation of migration within the framework of local administration services

The study aims to examine the perceptions of migrants among social workers and administrators employed in local governments, as well as how migration is evaluated within the framework of local government services. Accordingly, a mixed-methods approach was adopted. Quantitative data were obtained from 179 participants selected through simple random sampling among social workers and administrators working in local governments in Istanbul; qualitative data were collected from 68 volunteer local government employees selected through maximum variation sampling. The data were gathered using a two-stage data collection set designed by the researcher: the "Migrant Perception Scale," administered to determine local government employees' attitudes towards migrants, and a "Semi-Structured Interview Form" developed to conduct an in-depth assessment. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlation analyses, while qualitative data were analyzed through content analysis. Quantitative findings indicate that, within the danger dimension, agreement is relatively high with items suggesting that migrants pose a risk for social conflict and the political structure, whereas agreement is low regarding items on granting citizenship, hate speech, and social distance. In terms of gender and position in the municipality, it was found that managers scored higher on the danger and social exclusion dimensions, while social workers had the highest scores on the social inclusion and humanitarianism dimensions. Among the subdimensions of the scale, significant negative relationships were identified between danger and xv social exclusion on the one hand and social inclusion and humanitarianism on the other; a significant positive relationship was found between social inclusion and humanitarianism. Qualitative findings reveal that local government employees consider services such as housing, social assistance, health, and education for migrants to be among the core responsibilities of local governments and emphasize that social cohesion should be supported through language courses, cultural activities, and awareness-raising initiatives. Overall, the findings demonstrate that local governments play a strategic role in migration governance and that there is a need for migrant-oriented services to be planned in a more comprehensive, coordinated, and inclusive manner.