CONRADO, cilt.18, sa.85, ss.80-88, 2022 (ESCI)
ABSTRACT
After the 1950s, Turkey experienced an intense internal migration process. Squatting that developed with migration has been considered as an immigration problem that can be evaluated not only in the context of urbanization, but also socially, economically and culturally. In this sense, squatting constitutes one of the most important issues of both social work and social policy. Latife Tekin’s second novel, “Berji Kristin: Tales from Garbage Hills”, which was first published in 1984 after the book, “Dear Shameless Death”, is a story about a slum called Çiçektepe, which was established on the periphery of the city, close to landfills and industrial facilities. In this book, Tekin describes the struggle of people who emigrated from the countryside
but carried their traditions and habits here and struggled for life to hold on to space and people. In this study, it was evaluated which of the problems were emphasized by the 3rd and 4th grade students of the Department of Social Work from a foundation university in Istanbul who read the
book, Berji Kristin: Tales from Garbage Hills, what they proposed to solve these problems, and how they handled the social policy dimension of the solutions they created from the perspective of social work. In other words, it was evaluated to see how the students perceived the slum
problem both in the context of the book they read and the department they were affiliated with, how they evaluated the problem, and the opportunities to adapt the solution they created to the present day.
Keywords: Social work education, Berji Kristin, social policy .