Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

ANKARA: Irregular Armenian Workers' Problems Neglected

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • ANKARA: Irregular Armenian Workers' Problems Neglected

    IRREGULAR ARMENIAN WORKERS' PROBLEMS NEGLECTED

    Today's Zaman
    Feb 20 2010
    Turkey

    Irregular Armenian workers in Turkey are perceived as leverage or
    only as a component of Ankara-Yerevan relations, and the humanitarian
    aspects of the issue are neglected, recent research has pointed out.

    Research on the "State of Armenian Irregular Migrants in Turkey" was
    conducted by journalist Alin Ozinian in Istanbul, Antalya, Trabzon
    and Ankara through focus groups and in-depth interviews as part of
    a Eurasia Partnership Foundation project.

    In her research, Ozinian concluded that irregular Armenian workers
    worry about fluctuations in Turkish-Armenian relations because any turn
    for the worse thrusts them into an unwanted spotlight, and politicians
    frequently make remarks in this respect, but this situation leaves
    the humanitarian aspects of the issue out of the account.

    The number of irregular Armenian workers in Turkey is not clear;
    several sources indicate different numbers from 20,000 to 70,000,
    but a huge majority of them are women who work in domestic service,
    as baby-sitters and elder caregivers.

    In a meeting at the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey
    (TEPAV) in Ankara on Wednesday, Ozinian said that most of those women
    were making around $500-600 a month and either staying in the houses
    where they work or renting houses in Kumkapi, Istanbul, which is
    known as an Armenian neighborhood.

    Ozinian pointed out that the housing conditions were not very good and
    that sometimes more than 20 people were living in small houses. Many
    of them haven't seen their relatives for a long time since they are
    not able to travel because of irregularities in their papers.

    The workers' children, especially if they were born in Turkey,
    face many problems, including being stateless, since there is no
    diplomatic representation for Armenia in Turkey and the children
    are not registered as citizens. The children are not able to attend
    school because their parents are irregular workers and they need to
    keep this fact hidden. There are schools in Turkey for the Armenian
    minority but because of Turkish law, only Turkish citizens can attend.

    Ozinian said that these children -- she guessed that their number was
    around 600 -- were either being educated in the informal irregular
    classes established by the workers themselves or getting no education
    at all.

    According to Ozinian's observations, the Armenian women workers are
    perceived by Turkish society as closer to "Turkish culture" and they
    are sexually harassed less compared to women coming from the former
    Soviet republics.

    Being perceived as closer to Turkish culture makes them preferable
    for Turkish employers, but Ozinian underlined that Armenian workers
    are still uneasy when working for them because they think that at
    any time the situation can change.

    "Workers told me that while everything was fine, suddenly, because
    of a story in the media regarding Armenian-Turkish relations, their
    bosses can make disturbing remarks," she said.

    However, Ozinian added that the Armenian workers who work for
    Turkish-Armenian families also feel uneasy because they are looked
    down on and treated in a patronizing manner.

    Ozinian underlined that this attitude might be related to the workers'
    expectations of the Turkish Armenians, but workers still preferred to
    be employed by them because they believed they would not be reported
    to the police.

    The research also shows that the Armenian workers over time start to
    question their relationships with their husbands, most of whom have
    not seen their husbands for a long time. The majority of the workers
    (96 percent) are planning to return after saving enough capital to
    invest in Armenia, but 4 percent of them thought that they had a life
    here and although returning was desirable, it would not be easy.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Working...
X