| dc.description.abstract | The objective of this report is to understand the determinants and impacts
of Turkish and Syrian women’s participation in paid work outside the home,
focusing on gender and intergroup relations. This effort to understand is
made from an analysis perspective that is generated at the intersection of
macro policies, political and economic contexts and social gender regimes.
One of the targets of the study is to reveal the determinants of women’s
paid employment outside the home and their decision on whether they
will continue working or not. Another target is to comprehend the impact
of Turkish and Syrian women’s collaboration experiences on racism and
xenophobia.
Within the framework of the research, 38 in-depth semi-structured interviews
were conducted, and six focus group meetings were held. While nearly 40%
of the participants are in 26-35 age group and 27% are in 36-45 age group,
63% of the participants are married. Eighteen women worked in the textile
sector, 18 served in the services sector and 7 managed their own business,
7 worked as cleaning workers and 5 were unemployed at the time of the
interview.
Determinants of the paid employment and continuation of working outside
the home are common for Turkish and Syrian women. Market conditions
and gender regimes do not only establish the works and working conditions
accessible by women, but also determine whether women will remain a
member of the working life or not.
Working conditions and the gender regime are the most important
determinants for remaining a member of the working life. In addition to
working at low-paying and uninsured jobs, deeming home and children care
the responsibility of solely women and the absence of public services to
ease such burden result in women’s working for as long as they have to, in
the cases of both Turkish and Syrian women. Marriage, having children or
economic distress become, therefore, the reasons for quitting work on the
women’s side.
Whereas jobs and working conditions of Turkish and Syrian women have
commonalities, it is seen that education levels of Turkish women are lower
than those of Syrian women, which demonstrate how refugees have to work
at jobs that require less qualifications than they actually have.
The Temporary Protection regime for Syrian refugees create and maintain
the informal employment conditions that make Syrians vulnerable to being
exploited as the precarious labor force needed in the market.
Informal market conditions cause positioning Turkish and Syrian people as
two separate groups in competition with each other to make a living. Finding
a job and generating income within sectors where informal employment and
exploitation are high, particularly like the textile sector, pave the way for
conflicts and hostilities between Turkish people and Syrians.
There are substantial restrictions preventing self-reliance programs, which
mainly focus on providing skills and professions, enabling labor force market
accessible and encouraging entrepreneurship for both Turkish and Syrian
people, from making a lasting effect on the living conditions of the target
group, regardless of the market conditions.
Discourses and representations produced and extended by politicians
and the media seem to occupy a significant place in the hostile and racist
attitudes against Syrian refugees.
The research presents the limitations of the assumption that social contact
is the key to cohabitation on the basis of equality, by reducing racism and
hostility. Poverty and precarity, as well as competition and struggling to
survive under the market conditions, restrain physical intimacy at workplace
and neighborhood from turning into contact and empathy. It seems
impossible that physical intimacy could evolve into social contact and social
contact into cohabitation, without protective and supportive mechanisms
and policies for both Turkish and Syrian people. | en_US |
