(In)formalizing livelihoods: a case study of a refugee work permit scheme in Turkey
<p>This dissertation conducts a mixed methods case study of a refugee work permit scheme (RWPS) for Syrian refugees in Turkey. For refugees with regularized residency status, a RWPS grants access to the formal labor market of their host countries. Across four empirical chapters, I examine the...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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2024
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| _version_ | 1811141178692730880 |
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| author | Salihoğlu, A |
| author2 | Vargas-Silva, C |
| author_facet | Vargas-Silva, C Salihoğlu, A |
| author_sort | Salihoğlu, A |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>This dissertation conducts a mixed methods case study of a refugee work permit scheme (RWPS) for Syrian refugees in Turkey. For refugees with regularized residency status, a RWPS grants access to the formal labor market of their host countries. Across four empirical chapters, I examine the factors influencing work permit uptake and the RWPS's socio-political and economic outcomes. I combine problem-solving and critical approaches and adopt <em>economic informality</em> and <em>livelihoods</em> as the two conceptual prisms through which to assess the RWPS. For my analyses, I draw on primary legal and policy texts, labor force surveys, social media data and in-depth interviews with a diverse array of informant groups.</p>
<p>I quantitatively demonstrate that the RWPS fails to fulfill its dual purported goals of alleviating the labor informality and economic exclusion of Syrians under temporary protection (SuTP) in Turkey. I attribute this failure to the policy's incongruence with (a) the structural and sectoral labor informality dynamics of the Turkish labor market and (b) Syrian refugees' portfolio-building and present-oriented livelihood strategies.</p>
<p>I then explore the RWPS's broader outcomes. Firstly, I show how the Turkish state uses the RWPS as a ‘‘discretionary formality'' tool as I term it. The state selectively awards work permits to politically privileged labor market actors so as to formalize a symbolic number of Syrian workers while the vast majority remains indefinitely informal. Secondly, I argue that the refugee aid sector in Turkey has humanitarianized the RWPS and refugee livelihoods programming more broadly in order to accommodate national interests and sensitivities. I assert that these concessions undermine longer-term economic inclusion efforts and thus contribute to Syrian refugees' state of perpetual impermanence in the country.</p>
<p>I conclude that the RWPS, rather than facilitating SuTP formalization and economic inclusion in Turkey, serves to maintain the status quo of informality and exclusion in more ways than one.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:33:45Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:94699948-e0f3-4785-b3db-6ef7f352cd12 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:33:45Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:94699948-e0f3-4785-b3db-6ef7f352cd122024-09-10T09:42:10Z(In)formalizing livelihoods: a case study of a refugee work permit scheme in TurkeyThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:94699948-e0f3-4785-b3db-6ef7f352cd12Forced Migration StudiesInformality StudiesRefugee StudiesInternational DevelopmentEnglishHyrax Deposit2024Salihoğlu, AVargas-Silva, C<p>This dissertation conducts a mixed methods case study of a refugee work permit scheme (RWPS) for Syrian refugees in Turkey. For refugees with regularized residency status, a RWPS grants access to the formal labor market of their host countries. Across four empirical chapters, I examine the factors influencing work permit uptake and the RWPS's socio-political and economic outcomes. I combine problem-solving and critical approaches and adopt <em>economic informality</em> and <em>livelihoods</em> as the two conceptual prisms through which to assess the RWPS. For my analyses, I draw on primary legal and policy texts, labor force surveys, social media data and in-depth interviews with a diverse array of informant groups.</p> <p>I quantitatively demonstrate that the RWPS fails to fulfill its dual purported goals of alleviating the labor informality and economic exclusion of Syrians under temporary protection (SuTP) in Turkey. I attribute this failure to the policy's incongruence with (a) the structural and sectoral labor informality dynamics of the Turkish labor market and (b) Syrian refugees' portfolio-building and present-oriented livelihood strategies.</p> <p>I then explore the RWPS's broader outcomes. Firstly, I show how the Turkish state uses the RWPS as a ‘‘discretionary formality'' tool as I term it. The state selectively awards work permits to politically privileged labor market actors so as to formalize a symbolic number of Syrian workers while the vast majority remains indefinitely informal. Secondly, I argue that the refugee aid sector in Turkey has humanitarianized the RWPS and refugee livelihoods programming more broadly in order to accommodate national interests and sensitivities. I assert that these concessions undermine longer-term economic inclusion efforts and thus contribute to Syrian refugees' state of perpetual impermanence in the country.</p> <p>I conclude that the RWPS, rather than facilitating SuTP formalization and economic inclusion in Turkey, serves to maintain the status quo of informality and exclusion in more ways than one.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Forced Migration Studies Informality Studies Refugee Studies International Development Salihoğlu, A (In)formalizing livelihoods: a case study of a refugee work permit scheme in Turkey |
| title | (In)formalizing livelihoods: a case study of a refugee work permit scheme in Turkey |
| title_full | (In)formalizing livelihoods: a case study of a refugee work permit scheme in Turkey |
| title_fullStr | (In)formalizing livelihoods: a case study of a refugee work permit scheme in Turkey |
| title_full_unstemmed | (In)formalizing livelihoods: a case study of a refugee work permit scheme in Turkey |
| title_short | (In)formalizing livelihoods: a case study of a refugee work permit scheme in Turkey |
| title_sort | in formalizing livelihoods a case study of a refugee work permit scheme in turkey |
| topic | Forced Migration Studies Informality Studies Refugee Studies International Development |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT salihoglua informalizinglivelihoodsacasestudyofarefugeeworkpermitschemeinturkey |