The role of municipalities in struggle with migration in the context of wicked problems: The case of selected district municipalities in Istanbul

International migration is a wicked problem, of which scale and diversity are on the increase, that requires the involvement of many actors into the process due to its diversity in temporary policies that focus on the effects regardless of the causes of migration, and its potential effects upon the migrated country, city, immigrants and the society. At this point, authority and task sharing specifically between central administration and local authorities in struggle with migration as a wicked problem is the matter in question. While central administration deals with issues such as the control and the entrance of foreigners into the country, and providing visas, residency and citizenship, municipalities deal with many issues from daily life practises of foreigners to employment and adaptation to society. However, due to the absence of specific job descriptions in the related laws, municipalities perform these responsibilities on their own initiative. In this respect, different strategies and approaches emerge in the fight of municipalities against migration. In this context, the aim of this thesis is to handle the migration as a wicked problem, and to carry out a discussion, in the selected district municipalities in Istanbul, on determining the role of municipalities in the fight against migration and the strategy which comes closest to the solution in the fight against migration. In the thesis, firstly a detailed conceptual setting was established related to the wicked problems, then migration is addressed in the context of wicked problems. The management of migration in Turkey was evaluated in the context of actors, regulations and discourse, and the role of municipalities was emphasized. Finally, and a case study is exhibited in order to reveal the role of municipalities in the fight against migration, within the framework of critical case sampling type, which is one of the non-probabilistic purposeful sampling methods of qualitative research methods. In this context, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with the administrators and relevant unit managers of Esenyurt, Bağcılar and Küçükçekmece Municipalities on the European side, which have the highest number of temporarily protected Syrian population among the districts of Istanbul, and Sultanbeyli Municipality on the Anatolian side. In consequence of the findings, it was established that the roles of municipalities differ according to their level of ownership of migration management process, and that collaborative management strategy among the solutions for the wicked problems, comes to the front.