Syrian refugee presence in Turkey has been the subject of numerous studies since the arrival of Syrian refugees in 2012. Much research has focused on the incorporation of refugees into different economic sectors given questions about informality, labor conditions, and labor integration processes. The agricultural sector, as one that relies predominantly on manual and unskilled labor, has served as an entry point into the labor market for many Syrian refugees. The sector then offers the possibility to examine the conditions and forms of refugee labor incorporation. Saniye Dedeoğlu’s book Syrian Refugees and Agriculture in Turkey: Work, Precarity, Survival (2022) explores the intersection of refugee incorporation into the agricultural sector, the role of refugee women and children’s labor, and the migration regime in place.
The book is organized into an introduction, a conclusion, and six chapters. The first chapter presents the overall theoretical argument positioning the book in wider debates on the precaritization of labor and the incorporation of migrant labor into the global agricultural production chains. The author draws feminist scholarship on women’s labor and places it into conversation with recent scholarship on the differential inclusion of refugee (and migrant) labor. The second chapter provides a history of different migrant groups’ incorporation into the agricultural sector in Turkey and the third chapter complements it with an overview of the legal framework governing Syrian refugee presence. Through a focus on the labor of women and children, the fifth chapter presents the emerging and intersecting vulnerabilities of these subjects and the profitability of their labor incorporation. Chapter 6 is organized around the three processes of recruitment, remuneration, and retention to highlight how refugee labor is produced as bonded labor in this sector.
Relying on a feminist lens, Dedeoğlu argues that it is the labor of Syrian women and children specifically that increases the profitability of hiring Syrian refugee labor in the agricultural sector. Through the concept of intersecting vulnerabilities, she examines the compounded circumstances that result in certain segments of the refugee population, namely women and children, working in the agricultural industry while also highlighting the ways their incorporation is profited from at different levels by family, intermediaries (dayıbaş), and, ultimately, landowners. By examining the ways that different actors benefit from refugee women and children’s labor, Dedeoğlu demonstrates the intersecting factors that result in the perpetuation and continued dependence on women and children as labor despite Turkey signing conventions against child labor or attempts to reduce child labor. She provides a detailed overview of women’s and children’s tasks in campsites and fields. In the process, she demonstrates how their labor is made invisible, though ultimately contributing to families’ survival. In many ways, her discussion resonates with notable ethnographies of agricultural migrant labor such as Seth Holmes’s research in the USA. Considering prior studies raises questions around the conceptual framework relied on. The intervention would have benefitted from engaging with concepts such as structural vulnerability or at least highlighting the advantages of intersectional vulnerabilities in addressing the gaps of other conceptual frames relied on in studies of migrant incorporation into the agricultural sector.
Through a wider discussion of migrant labor inclusion in this sector, namely the case of Azeri and Georgian migrants, Dedeoğlu highlights how the agricultural sector in Turkey has historically been dependent on both internal and international migrants. The case of Syrian refugee labor’s inclusion in this sector then becomes a continuation of these prior trends, albeit marked by certain nuances and distinctions. Dedeoğlu outlines the legal framework governing Syrian refugees’ presence in Turkey, thereby indicating the ways that the migration regime in place facilitates refugees’ incorporation into this sector. The agricultural sector is the only sector that Syrian refugees under Temporary Protection do not require work permits to work in. It is an example of the ways that the migration regime addresses the distinct needs of this sector in terms of informal employment and flexible labor. Drawing on the concept of “differential inclusion” as developed by autonomy of migration scholars, Dedeoğlu demonstrates the ways this conceptualization can inform our understanding of the incorporation of refugees as labor (p. 4). However, the analysis of the legal framework would have benefitted from articulating better the ways the legal framework serves to produce refugees as easily exploitable labor.
The book relies on several sources including two surveys conducted with agricultural workers and interviews with refugee and citizen agricultural workers and intermediaries. Despite presenting comprehensive information about labor conditions, the book presented little data from the interviews in many instances, which is a missed opportunity. In addition, while writing about children’s labor, it remains unclear if the author engaged with refugee child laborers. Rather, insights from their parents or relatives or the labor intermediaries about their labor were presented. In some instances, the experiences of citizen child laborers were relied on to bring to the fore key points. For instance, regarding access to education, or lack thereof, citizen child laborers’ experiences are relied on to highlight the difficulties that refugee children face given the additional barriers they experience in accessing education in Turkey. While education may constitute a form of capital to exit agricultural labor, the book would have benefitted from considering if other forms of capital are available to agricultural refugee workers. In the case of citizen laborers, becoming an intermediary emerges as one of the few opportunities available in this sector to achieve some form of social mobility; however, it remains unclear what, if any, options are possible for refugee laborers.
Across the book, the chapter on bonded labor emerges as the book’s strength. The chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the different forms of payment relied on in the case of citizen and refugee labor. It demonstrates the ways spatial practices of isolation and the payment systems used contribute to the production of bonded labor. While the chapter would have benefitted from engaging with sociological or anthropological discussions of informal payment systems and exploitation to advance those debates, it still brings to the fore the crucial role that intermediaries play, not only in organizing labor but also in keeping them caught in this sector.
The issues mentioned do not, however, compromise the book’s overall contribution to the burgeoning field of studies on migrant and refugee incorporation in Turkey. Given the focus on agricultural labor, the book is also important for wider studies about the agricultural industry and the position of migrant and refugee labor in the sector. Through its focus on the labor of women and children, the book counters research that approaches Syrian refugees as a homogeneous group or disregards the impact of the intersecting dimensions of gender or age on refugees’ experiences. It draws on the autonomy of migration literature and feminist scholarship on women’s labor thereby providing students with insights on how to engage with these bodies of literature. The different levels of engagement and accessible language will make it a useful resource for students and researchers exploring issues of refugee labor incorporation, bonded labor, and refugee incorporation into the agricultural sector in Turkey.
