ABSTRACT

In recent years, a considerable attention is paid to the situation of international labour migration in Turkey. In an evaluation of the situation of migrants in the Turkish labour market, it is argued that their participation takes two distinct forms regardless of their source country, the type of migration, and gender. The first, migrants work in the sectors where there is a limited labour supply and skill shortages such as domestic services. The second, migrants find work in sectors such as agriculture, textile and construction where there is already abundance of local labour supply and generate competition to lower the level of wages. This is to say that migrant labour either fills the skill gap or engage in labour-intensive, precarious and informal jobs. The agriculture is one of the leading sectors where migrant labour competes with the native labour to get jobs and the result is lowered wage levels and labour surplus. This article aims to highlight the current situation of migrant labour in agricultural sector and to examine the different forms of social change triggered by the utilization of migrant labour in rural areas.