Dr. Bediz Yilmaz-Bayraktar (Urban Studies): Syrian Migrants in Turkey: The Emergence of a new Form of Slavery in Agriculture

Not much is known in Germany about the situation of Syrian migrants in Turkey, the country which received over three million Syrians since 2011. The presentation will start with an overview of the ambiguous legal status of Syrian migrants/refugees, socio-demographic facts and figures as well as the perception and discourses of Turkey’s population towards Syrians.

In the second part, Dr. Yilmaz will focus on Syrian agricultural workers living in Mersin, a city situated in the South-East at the Mediterranean coast and close to the Syrian border. In Mersin, the agricultural sector holds an important share of the city’s economy. Of approximately 400.000 Syrians settled in the city with 1 million inhabitants in the central areas, the Syrians working in the agriculture are the worse-off. Based on her experiences with this group of workers as an activist, she will give insights into a ‘new forms of slavery’ in the agricultural sector.

Dr. Yilmaz-Bayraktar is an urban sociologist and was until August 2016 Assistant Professor at the University of Mersin. She is a signatory of the petition “Academics for Peace”. In February 2017, she will join the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS) at the University of Osnabrück.

Anfragen/Organisation:
Prof. Dr. Helen Schwenken, Universität Osnabrück, IMIS, Fachgebiet Migration und Gesellschaft, soz-imis@uni-osnabrueck.de