Defining the ethnic enclave: Syrian immigrant spaces in Fatih, Istanbul

Purpose This study aims to examine how Syrian enclave space is produced, sensed and interpreted through everyday practices and semiotic cues along Aksemsettin Street (Fatih, Istanbul) and propose a replicable street-scale method for translating multisensory observations into a social-semiotic framework. Design/methodology/approach A two-stage qualitative case study combined semi-structured interviews with 45 Syrian participants (30 regular users; 15 business owners) and field observation. Transcripts were analysed abductively using a shared codebook and an excerpt-to-code-to-theme audit trail, and 12 stores (S01–S12) were photographed and coded using a 3-domain sign list (outdoor visual, indoor visual and non-visual) across an approximately 250 m corridor (five 50 m segments). Findings Belonging is sustained through recurring routines (shopping, eating, praying and socialising) reinforced by Arabic script and speech, music, food aromas and Syrian-coded material cues. Participants also expressed ambivalence about crowding and stylisation/commodification and noted governance constraints shaping public-facing expression. Overall, the corridor functions beyond commerce as a socially anchored migrant retail formation where identity is negotiated through multisensory atmospheres and semiotic performance, supporting a hybrid transclave reading. Research limitations/implications As a single-corridor qualitative case, findings are context-specific and not statistically generalisable; the 12-store inventory is not a full Geographic Information Systems (GIS) census. Nonetheless, the framework offers a replicable protocol for coding multisensory semiotic cues at street scale, supporting comparative studies and informing design and governance. Future work should test the framework longitudinally and integrate spatial analytics. Originality/value The paper introduces a transferable three-domain sign list and sign schema that extend predominantly visual social-semiotic approaches and enable systematic store-to-store comparison in migrant retail corridors.