Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

Emre Eren Korkmaz explores how the participation of Syrian refugees in the informal economy in Turkey has changed historical relations between formal and informal employment, and what can be done to ensure fair, legal employment of all workers in Turkey's garment sector, including Syrian refugees

Turkey hosts 3.5 million refugees, the world's largest refugee population, of which an estimated 3.2 million are from Syria. As a consequence of the protracted war in Syria, the mass movement of refugees fleeing conflict zones still continues. However, there are millions of Syrians who have now been living in Turkey for years, and who are building their lives and futures in Turkey. This necessitates a dual approach towards Syrians in Turkey, considering them simultaneously as both refugees fleeing their countries due to civil war, as well as active economic agents looking for opportunities to work or invest.

In this new working paper, Emre Eren Korkmaz addresses the participation of Syrian refugees in Turkey's informal economy. There is a growing interest in the working conditions of Syrian refugees in Turkey from the Turkish government, many UN agencies, as well as various NGOs and transnational corporations, who are implementing programmes and projects to tackle the varying needs of Syrian refugees. Rather than solely objectifying refugees as a vulnerable group, Dr Korkmaz argues that paying attention to their contribution to industrial relations is crucial in order to acknowledge refugees as active agents capable of changing their lives and the structures within which they operate. The working paper focuses on the relations between the informal and formal sectors in Turkey and how such relations have affected the survival strategies of Syrian refugees. In turn, it also attempts to assess how the participation of Syrian refugees in the informal economy has changed these historical relations between formal and informal employment, and provides recommendations about what can be done going forward to ensure fair, legal employment of all workers in Turkey's garment sector, including Syrian refugees.

Download the working paper

Similar stories

Working Paper: Immigration policy effects – A conceptual framework

Liv Bjerre provides a conceptual framework for the analysis of immigration policy effects by arguing that immigration policies have varying effects on different categories of immigrants whether they are regular immigrants, asylum seekers or irregular immigrants

Return Migration in Africa

IMI Researcher, Dr. Marie-Laurence Flahaux together with Dr. Bruno Shoumaker and Dr. Thierry Eggerickx edit a new issue of 'Space, Populations, Societies' which seeks to explore the understudied aspects of return migration in Africa

Working Paper: Hopes and fears of migrants’ contribution to political change, a Tunisian case study

Marieke van Houte explores complexities of political change in relation to mobility and immobility through a fascinating Tunisian case study that challenges conventional notions that transnational political engagements contribute to democratization

Exploring domestic & diasporic non-government responses to the Liberian Ebola Crisis

New article published in the academic journal, African Affairs by IMI Senior Research Officer Robtel Neajai Pailey

Legal invisibility was the best thing to happen to me

Senior Research Officer Robtel Neajai Pailey shares her experience of living as an undocumented migrant in the US for 14 years in a remarkable piece for Al Jazeera

Call for papers for new journal Migration and Society

The first issue of the journal focuses on Hospitality and hostility towards migrants: Global perspectives