Research Project: Bridging the Migration and Urban Studies Nexus
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Contributors
Funders
ID
EC.00169
Authors
İçduygu, Ahmet
Faculty Member
Publications
Local turn through international networking: Istanbul's migration city diplomacy
(Sage Publications Ltd., 2025)
Karşıyaka, Birce Altıok
MIReKoç (Migration Research Program at Koç University)
No
Kılınçarslan, Pelin
Karşıyaka, Birce Altıok
This paper explores how the local turn in migration governance is facilitated through city diplomacy and international networks within highly centralized political systems. Drawing on interviews with municipal representatives, NGOs, and experts in Istanbul, Turkey, it focuses on the drivers behind the city's increasing international engagement in urban migration governance. This article shows that municipalities and local NGOs are increasingly turning to external networks in response to administrative, financial, and political challenges at the domestic level. It introduces the concept of “maneuvering practicality” as a dual-purpose city diplomacy approach that explains how international networking enables city-level actors to balance immediate pragmatic needs with strategic autonomy-building within centralized governance structures. While the recognition of “cities as international actors” has been growing, its implications for urban migration governance, especially in highly centralized contexts, have received relatively less attention both theoretically and empirically. By framing international city diplomacy as both a counterbalancing tool and a resilience mechanism in migration governance, this paper contributes to the emerging scholarship on migration city diplomacy within international relations, urban studies, and migration studies.