LABOUR DIMENSION OF IRREGULAR MIGRATION IN TURKEY

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LABOUR DIMENSION OF IRREGULAR MIGRATION IN TURKEY
MiReKoc

• Prof. Dr. Ahmet Içduygu
• Director, Migration Reserach Program (MiReKoc)
• Dept. of International Relations
• Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey
• ABCDE Tokyo, May 2006
  

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CONTENT

• Introduction
• Research question relationship btw international
  migration and informalization of economies
• Irregular migration in Turkey
• Transit migration
• Circular migration
• Asylum seeking
• Irregular Migrant Labour in Turkey
• Do immigrants create the conditions of the
  informality?
• Do immigrants come into picture after these
  conditions are created?
• Concluding Remarks
• International migration and informalization of
  economies as a part of the structural patterns or
  transformations in our economies

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Introduction

• Research question relationship btw international
  migration and informalization of economies
• Are immigrants the direct causes of
  informalization?
• Do immigrants take the less desirable jobs
  generated by informalization?
• And, do immigrants led to a decline in the costs
  of production?

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Irregular Migration in Turkey

• Irregular migration in Turkey as a part/product
  of the international migratory regime(s) in
• Europe
• the Mediterranean Basin
• the West Asia
• Irregular migrant labour in Turkey as a
  part/product of the structural patterns or
  transformation in our economies
• Irregular migration in Turkey as a part/product
  of the economic, social, political
  transformations in the neighbouring regions
• Circular migration after the collapse of the
  communist system
• Transit migration after political unrest in
  Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq
• Asylum seeking after political unrest in
  Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq

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Irregular Migration in Turkey

• Circular migration after the collapse of the
  communist system
• Transit migration after political unrest in
  Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq
• Asylum seeking after political unrest in
  Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq

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A Historical Synopsis

• 1980s - Afghan asylum seekers/settlers a couple
  of thousands
• 1980s Polish suitcase traders
• 1980 onwards Iranians fleeing 500,000
  1,000,000
• 1988 onwards Iraqis (mostly Kurds) 50,000
  (1988) 60,000(1990) 500,000 (1991)
• 1989 Turks from Bulgaria over 300,000 people
• 1992 - Bosnians 20,000 -25,000
• 1999 Albanians 20,000
• 1990 onwards People from the Eastern European
  and CIS countries suitcase traders,
  shuttle/circular migrants, clandestine workers
• 1990 onwards People from the countries in the
  Middle East, Asia, and Africa transit migrants
• 1990 onwards orderly migrations of
  professionals, students, retired people

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Transit Migration and Main Routes from and to
Turkey
Turkey as a Country of Immigration and Transit
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Irregular Migrants in Turkey
Irregular Migrants 1995-2005
Irregular Migrants 2000-2005
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Circular Migration and Labour Type of Migrants in
Turkey
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Transit Type of Irregular Migrants to Turkey
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Asylum Seeking in Turkey
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Irregular Migrant Labour in Turkey

• In Turkey
• Do immigrants create the conditions of the
  informality?
• Do immigrants come into picture after these
  conditions are present?
• The large extent and long-establishment of
  informality in the Turkish economy is obvious
• It is not a pop-up problem in Turkey (often not
  considered as a problem), it has its own
  rationality within the developments of Turkish
  economy (Colak and Bekmez, 2004)
• The informal sector employs more than half of all
  workers (OECD, 2004)
• Who involves informal economic activities those
  who are relatively small scale, are
  sub-contractor, do not have economies of scale,
  with low capital requirement, with regional
  and/or family based formations, do not have
  social security protection, are irregular in
  terms of time dimension (seasonal, or part time)

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Irregular Migrant Labour in Turkey

• The large extent and long-establishment of
  informality in the Turkish economy is obvious
• But also there is an increase in the weight of
  informal sector, particularly in urban areas, in
  the country mainly because
• there is an ongoing flows of migrants from rural
  to urban
• entry to the market is very easy, and does not
  require any sunk cost
• there is a need for a competitive structure of
  the economy due the liberalization and
  globalization
• there is an increase in the number of small
  businesses and intra-family economic activities
• there is still labour intensive economic
  activities
• Economic policies/practices in the country may
  encourage (or at least do not discourage) such
  activities
• high level labour taxes, in particular social
  security charges, and stringent regulations
  constitute barriers to becoming formal which trap
  firms and workers in the informal economy, where
  they are deprived of access to public and banking
  services and cannot reap benefits from economies
  of scale (OECD, 2004)

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Irregular Migrant Labour in Turkey

• Based on these reports, migrant workers can be
  classified in terms of their major sectors of
  activity
• Moldavian women providing household services,
• female nationals of Eastern European countries
  and the Russian Federation and Ukraine working in
  the entertainment and sex sectors,
• mostly men from Eastern European countries and
  some from various Asian and African countries
  working in the construction sector,
• mostly female nationals of Eastern European
  countries and the Russian Federation and Ukraine
  working in the textile and clothing industries,
• mixture of various foreign nationals engaging in
  employment in restaurant and other food-related
  sectors, and,
• mostly men from the Russian Federation, Ukraine,
  and Azerbaijan working in agricultural sectors.
• The migrant workers usually engage in low paying,
  dirty, dangerous and difficult jobs, typical of
  the informal labour market. This picture confirms
  the stereotypes of irregular migrant workers, as
  a reserve army of labour or as a secondary
  labour force.

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Concluding Remarks

• International migration and informalization of
  economies as a part of the new international
  migratory regimes in the globalized world,
• International migration and informalization of
  economies as a part of the structural patterns or
  transformations in our economies in the
  globalized world,
• Immigrants do not create the conditions of the
  informality although they come into the picture
  after these conditions are created they do the
  less desirable jobs generated by informalization,
  and they led to a decline in the costs of
  production of formal industries in so doing,
  they facilitate informal production and engage in
  the distribution of certain activities.

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• Thank you!!!!