Director’s Message

Migration is not merely the movement of individuals from one place to another; it is the rewriting of the identities of nations, societies, and cities. Cities, in turn, are both the setting and the subject of this process. Migration and the city are two fundamental social phenomena that have influenced and transformed one another for centuries. As Edward Said noted, migration is “a discontinuous state of being”; the migrant transforms both the city left behind and the city arrived at, not only physically but also culturally, socially, economically, and politically. This transformation often permeates the spirit of cities through invisible fractures, interrupted memories, and reconstructed senses of belonging.

Throughout history, migration movements have sometimes led to large-scale population displacements, sometimes to the formation of new minority groups, and sometimes to the enrichment of the cultural diversity of cities. However, encounters between differences do not always lead to harmony; they can also give rise to conflict. At this point, the question that must be asked is this: Are the causes of these conflicts migration itself, or the inability of cities to provide the social, economic, and political infrastructure necessary to accommodate migration? In fact, the source of many difficult tensions is often not migration itself, but the systems that manage—or fail to manage—it.

Migration has transformed cities not only through their demographic structures but also through their cultural fabrics, the use of public spaces, and everyday life practices. At the same time, cities have also shaped migrants. Cities that have become globalized through neoliberal policies have fragmented both physically and socially through migrant neighborhoods, suburbs, marginalized peripheral areas, and capital-concentrated urban centers. This spatial segregation has produced new urban forms in which social inequalities have become increasingly visible.

This environment of fragmentation and inequality deepens and complicates the impacts not only of migration but also of disasters. Disasters, much like migration, profoundly affect both the physical and social fabric of cities. In addition to natural disasters, human-made crises render vulnerable groups in cities even more exposed. Migrants, refugees, and displaced communities are often among the groups most severely affected during and after disasters. For this reason, migration, urban studies, and disaster research form an intertwined and inseparable field of study. In post-disaster reconstruction processes, the rights violations, inequalities in access, and risks of social exclusion faced by migrants make it necessary to rethink urban planning on the basis of justice.

For this reason, the age we live in today is defined not only by global migration movements but also by uncertainty. In what Ulrich Beck described as the “Risk Society,” disasters are no longer solely nature-based; they manifest in diverse and unpredictable forms—from the climate crisis to the influence of artificial intelligence on everyday life, from global pandemics to rapidly increasing refugee mobility. Within these multilayered crises, both the actors of migration and the cities themselves stand at the threshold of profound transformation.

So what will become of cities in this age of crises? How will this uncertain environment of risk reshape migration, migrants, and the societies that receive them? These questions may never receive definitive answers. Yet pursuing these questions—researching them, debating them, and developing proposals—while striving to build socially equitable, participatory, fair, and inclusive cities is more valuable today than ever before.

Prof.  Ulaş Sunata