ABSTRACT

This study aims to draw attention to the ethnic discrimination that exists in the labor markets in Turkey and which sometimes shows serious signs of increasing and tries to understand the probable causes of this discrimination. In this research, several interviews had been realized with the persons from different ethnic origins who are employed, unemployed, dismissed or are looking for a job in formal labor markets in urban areas where there are concerns that they have been discriminated. In fact this study takes basically the hypothesis that the ethnic discrimination exists in the labor markets in general in Turkey. As the content of the research topic contains some specific difficulties, it relies on the findings which are obtained through the interviews realized only in Southeastern Anatolia and in some big provinces in the west of Turkey. Although these interviews bring out the truth of the existence of ethnic discrimination in labor markets, its frequency and characteristics in terms of labor markets indicate significant differences comparing to the victims. The fact that all kinds of the ethnic discriminations constitute a crime, it leads the persons using discrimination to make ambiguous and contradictory statements. For that reason the topic of ethnic discrimination against the employees either during their recruitment and placement or their promotion and dismissing is never expressed. The interviews realized during this research have been made in total six provinces of the West and Southeastern regions of Anatolia. The findings used in this study obtained directly from the persons working for the non-governmental organizations, the municipalities, the trade unions and the people who have been personally the victims of discrimination. As a result, some traces of ethnic discrimination observed in the labor market in Turkey. It is difficult to reach a conclusion about the common existence of ethnic discrimination owing to the limitations in the research field.