How Should Spatial Planning Deal WITH Forced Immigration IN THE Turkish Case?

Abstract

During the last twelve years, one of the hot topics on Türkiye’s public agenda has been Syrian forced immigration. In this period, Türkiye welcomed over 3.1 million Syrian immigrants who freely choose to settle in various cities. They have presented significant concentrations in certain cities and caused socio-spatial impacts. The Turkish spatial planning practice is not capable of coping with these impacts. In this framework, this study focuses on the question of how spatial planning should deal with forced immigration and discusses what kind of qualities spatial planning should have concerning forced immigration, at both regional and urban levels. Resilience is the key concept in these discussions. To make the proposals for resilience more concrete and operational, the German case, as the best spatial planning experience, is analyzed. This analysis offers valuable insights into how Turkish planning practice should address both the existing and the possible the waves of forced migration.