ABSTRACT
This research’s aim is to analyse Iranian asylum seekers’/refugees’ position in the labour market, discrimination, and practices of labour exploitation they have been exposed to under the conditions of surplus value production in Denizli. Utilizing the qualitative field research method, 37 Iranian asylum seekers and refugees have been interviewed from November 2015 to April 2017. The interviews have been conducted as in-depth, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. The research findings reveal that Iranian migrants in the city are preferred as cheap labour sources especially in the textile sector. Due to political barriers preventing global migration, discrimination practices combining with the prolongation of the waiting period in the city stratifies migrant labour exploitation. Besides, negations created by being a refugee combine with difficulties of paid work in Turkey which is the intermediate station of the migration process. Thus, taking part in the stratified labour market as undocumented, unsecured workers without insurance, Iranian migrants are deprived of social rights and experience the risks of both being a worker and migrant in the labour process. Another dimension of the research findings is that Iranian refugees/asylum seekers being very visible in the city life in Denizli have a social belonging in different subculture groups. Subculture groups differing from each other create a relationality with migrants’ position in production relations as well as housing, social life, and leisure activities. These subculture groups both coincide with categories related to migration reasons and proportionally incorporates a cosmopolite feature to the city due to the fact that the Iranian refugee subculture has a fragmented and complicated structure in itsel