Arisha Jawad

Professor Campos

HIST 245

2nd April 2022

Documentary Analysis

The documentary “Istanbul, My Dream” revolves around four African immigrants

attempting to pursue their career dreams in Istanbul. The hurdles they face during the process

highlight several essential characteristics of 21st century Istanbul. These include inter-communal

relations within the city, restrictions to mobility, transnational racial optic, and visibility and

invisibility in urban spaces for migrants.

The documentary revolves around four African immigrants that enter Istanbul with

extremely high hopes and dreams. However, due to their struggles, their access to public spaces

and mobility is restricted to the extent that they do not have the resources needed to achieve

these dreams. Inter-communal relations are a prominent theme in the documentary that reflects

their lack of access to resources. This is evident in several scenes in the documentary, such as the

fact that they all live in a secluded neighborhood, Kurtulus, which, while it is located in the

middle of the city, mainly consists of African residents and their mobility within the city, due to

several different factors is restricted to this neighborhood. While some of them live there

optionally to find a sense of belonging and a community, it is also true that more often, they are

forced to live there due to the housing issues and discrimination they face elsewhere. For

example, landlords often kick them out of fear that they are illegal immigrants and fear getting
involved in law and order issues, suspecting them of having illegal visa statuses, and scenes in

the documentary show landlords being extremely vocally racist.

Their mobility is also restricted in public spaces of Istanbul, such as the city center,

which often leads to difficulty for them when they attempt to find employment opportunities.

This is because, while Istanbul may have a reputation for being a ‘cosmopolitan city,’ we see this

is specifically untrue for African immigrants. Ethnically European people mostly dominate

Istanbul’s streets; therefore, people of color become extremely visible in these spaces and face

open discrimination by forces the state uses to keep them out and locals who, in the

documentary, are openly throwing racial slurs at them. Their lack in public spaces and their

extreme visibility when they navigate these spaces is a repercussion and a cause of these factors.

Modern-day Istanbul consists of extreme surveillance in public spaces, but this surveillance is

restricted to people of color and immigrants, who are made to be seen as a threat to state security.

The fluidity of borders and transnationalism is a significant theme throughout the

documentary, as borders become non-porous for certain immigrants, specifically those who

come from countries in poverty, and become fluid for immigrants from wealthier countries and

who are seen as more economically beneficial for the city. Furthermore, the documentary

highlights how immigrations laws are discriminatory and lead to a cycle of poverty for African

immigrants. For example, even if they enter Istanbul legally, due to the hurdles they face, they

lack the monetary resources that are needed to renew their visa, which they are also only allowed

to do once a year. This policy differs for immigrants from different countries. Therefore, they

often end up staying in the city illegally since discriminatory policies have led them to lack the

resources they need to fulfill immigration requirements. This often leads to them ending up in

slums since they cannot find work or housing anywhere due to their visa status. 21st century
Istanbul has borders that may be fluid for certain immigrants, but for African immigrants, these

policies become a trap.

Historical context is significant in this documentary because, through comparison, it

allows us to see the transformation, or lack of transformation, that has led to modern-day

Istanbul being the way it is in the documentary. Istanbul, during the late Ottoman Empire,

consisted of several minorities and different ethnicities and was renowned for moving towards

the transnational optic. However, it was still divided spatially into quarters, but the division was

primarily dependent on religion more than it was on race, and therefore discrimination was

dominantly faced by religious minorities, as religion was seen as a uniting factor despite

ethnicity or race. However, in modern-day Istanbul, despite the fact that some of these African

immigrants are Muslims and pray with other locals side by side inside mosques, they still face

discrimination due to race and nationality. They are treated equally in religious spaces since

these are sacred spaces, but they are not safe from racial discrimination anywhere outside it.

Furthermore, state surveillance and control of public space have historically been prominent in

Istanbul. For example, even in pre-modern Istanbul, prostitution was severely regulated even

within private spices because it was viewed as a threat to state security and purity. Similarly,

beggars were banished from public spaces since they were considered “polluting” spaces, and

public spaces always consisted of state surveillance. Therefore, in this context, parallels can be

drawn with modern-day Istanbul and how immigrants are regulated due to the perceived threat

they bring to state security.

The state used specific mechanisms for regulation of immigrants from countries in poverty –

these mechanisms in the old Istanbul resulted in integrating them into state institutions to

maintain national security. However, in modern Istanbul, the state actively tries to exclude these
minorities – this is done through specific immigration laws that we see become hurdles for the

African immigrants in the documentary and are the root cause for them being stuck in a cycle of

poverty and eventually migrating back to Africa without having accomplished the dreams they

hoped to achieve.

Conclusively, through the experiences of these African immigrants, modern-day Istanbul seems

to be actively trying to transform into a homogenous societal culture, and borders are becoming

more non-porous than ever. State surveillance is increasingly growing for racial minorities, and

only immigrants that are white-collar workers are openly welcomed into the city. Religion is no

longer a uniting factor to the extent it was in historic Istanbul. Towards the end of the

documentary, we witness organizations forming that want to work to empower immigrants to

fight against state injustices towards them and start working towards showing resistance through

collective action.