Brokered bureaucracy: commodified integration in arrival spaces in Istanbul

This article examines the important role of arrival spaces and commercial actors in facilitating migrant integration within contexts characterised by increasingly complex bureaucratic requirements. It draws on ethnographic research conducted between 2021 and 2022 in a key arrival hub for diverse migrant populations in Istanbul, which emerges as a critical space where commercial actors enable migrants to navigate bureaucratic systems and access essential services. By integrating the frameworks of ‘arrival infrastructures’ and the ‘migration industry,’ the analysis sheds light on how commercial businesses mitigate barriers to integration while simultaneously commodifying the bureaucratic process. Such reliance on intermediaries and local businesses, we argue, reveals the paradoxical dynamics of migration management, where the state’s regulatory framework reinforces dependence on private actors to mitigate the complexities and bridge systemic gaps. A central arrival hub in Istanbul exemplifies how urban spaces adapt to the dynamic needs of migrants, offering pathways to legal status, employment, and integration. Thus, the study reveals how commercial infrastructures facilitate migrants’ longer-term settlement and mobility trajectories. By situating commercial infrastructures and document brokerage at the centre of migrant integration processes, this research contributes to migration studies by emphasising their indispensable yet understudied role in contexts of heightened regulatory constraints.