Read more
This book examines the migration of women as gendered subjects to and from Turkey, using feminist research practices to explore a range of diverse experiences of migrant women as refugees, asylum seekers, undocumented or documented migrants. The collection includes contributions from researchers, practitioners, and migrants themselves to present a nuanced analysis that challenges binary divisions between 'forced' and 'voluntary' migrants and highlights the political and social agency of refugee and migrant women in Turkey. Drawing on a rich body of original empirical and theoretical research the volume explores recent policy change in Turkey, the political and social influences that have shaped migration policy (both internally and globally), and how women migrants have been positioned within its changing refugee and migration regimes.
Analysis of the Turkish experience of redesigning migration policy in a country with weak civil protection against gender discrimination provides important lessons, in particular for countries in the Global South that are under pressure from the Global North to control and manage migrant flows. This interdisciplinary volume offers gender-sensitive recommendations for policymakers and practitioners and will advance global debates on migration management and governance across the fields of sociology, social policy, anthropology, labour economics and political science.
List of contents
1. Women, Migration and Asylum Seeking in Turkey: Research, Policy and Practice; Lucy Williams, Emel Coskun and Selmin Kaska.- Part 1. Gender and Migration in Turkey - Key Themes.- Vignette 1. Zakira Hekmat: What We Need is the Empowerment of Refugee Women.- 2. Exploring "Women" and "Gender": Trajectories of migration research in Turkey; Selmin Kaska.- 3. Gender, Women and Precarity: Examples from Turkey; Nazli Senses.- 4. The Gendered Impacts of Migration and Welfare Regimes: Migrant Women Workers in Turkey; Gülay Toksöz.- Part 2. Policy on Gendered Migration in Turkey.- Vignette 2. 'Salma': Looking for Greener Pastures in Turkey.- Vignette 3. Meltem Öztürk: Asking the Right Questions for a Common Political Struggle and Solidarity with Migrant Women.- Vignette 4. Elvira Budaichieva and Eliza Shaeva: Kyrgyz Women Seek Solutions to Their Problems on Social Media.- 5. Gender in the Turkish Asylum Process; Emel Coskun and Beril Eski.- 6. WelfareState Responses and Social Workers' Attitudes towards Syrians in Turkey; Reyhan Atasü-Topçuoglu.- 7. 'Institutional Blind Spots' in Turkey's Policy Against the Trafficking of Women; Emel Coskun.- Part 3. Gender Roles and Strategies in Syrian Migration.- Vignette 5. 'Rasha Najy': An Arabic interpreter.- 8. Bitter Lives on Fertile Lands: Syrian Women's Work and Labor in Turkish Agricultural Production; Saniye Dedeoglu and Sinem Sefa Bayraktar.- 9. The Most Invisible of the Invisibles: Skilled Syrian Women in the Turkish Labor Market; Çagla Ünlütürk Ulutas and Sezgi Akbas.- 10. Child Marriage: A Survival Strategy for Syrian Refugee Families in Turkey?; Melda Yaman.- 11. A Future Agenda: Policy and Practice in Gender, Migration and Research in Turkey; Lucy Williams and Emel Coskun.
About the author
Lucy Williams is Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Kent, UK.
Emel Cökun is Associate Professor of Sociology at Düzce University, Turkey.
Selmin Käka is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Economics, Labour Economics and Industrial Relations Department at Marmara University, Turkey.
