Local governments as new actors of migration management: İstanbul field research

Turkey has been the home for wide range of immigrants and refugees from past to present. Recently, Turkey has become a target country in addition to being a transit country. With the great wave of immigration from Syria started in 2011, over the last 4 years Turkey has been harbouring the largest number of refugees in the world. Compared to living in camps, living in urban areas is more attractive to migrants and refugees in terms of the opportunities it provides and accordingly about 97% of Syrians in Turkey live in cities. By 30 May 2019, Istanbul is home to 545,992 Syrians under temporary protection and ranks first in the list of provinces where Syrian are under temporary protection reside. It is observed that this number has increased even more with the Syrians living in Istanbul although they are not registered in Istanbul or are registered in another province. Local governments/municipalities, which play a primary role in providing local and collective needs, are among the institutions that have the closest contact with migrants and refugees at the local level. Local governments/municipalities, who are familiar with local needs, provide services for migrants and refugees through their social assistance and social cohesion activities. In this regards, local governments/ municipalities are one of the most important actors in process management. It is aimed to make an examination of the institutional structures of the local governments/municipalities in the field of migration management with this thesis and the field research conducted using the survey method. In this context, the organizational structure of the local governments/municipalities in the field of migration, the areas in which they provide services for migrants and refugees, their cooperation networks and their roles in policy development processes are discussed.