Ercüment Akdeniz*
With the war in Syria and the ensuing migration, Turkey has become one of the countries that host the largest migrant population in the world. This development opened a new field of exploitation for the bourgeoisie in Turkey. Thus, the AKP government, by using the Syrian migration effectively, joined the ongoing exploitation of migrant workers in the international arena as a powerful and collaborative actor. While the previous experiences of exploitation of imperialist states and monopolies have been a source of inspiration for the Turkish bourgeoisie, the ruling classes and political power have come a long way in developing new exploitation techniques.
Before delving into the detailed picture in Turkey, it will be useful to look at the situation in the world in general terms. According to the World Migration Report, in 2020, there are at least 281 million migrants on the globe. The migrant population corresponds to 3.5 per cent of the entire world population.[1] This includes millions of people from Turkey who have travelled across continents to work or seek asylum.
The vast majority of the world’s total migrant population is made up of migrant workers. According to ILO data, the number of migrant workers increased from 164 million in 2017 to 169 million in 2019. During this period, the proportion of young workers in the world’s migrant population increased by 2 per cent.[2] One can conclude that these figures will be higher by 2023.
In the 20th century, the peak of the exploitation of migrant labour occurred in the immediate aftermath of the second imperialist war of division. After Europe was liberated from fascism in 1945, migrant labour was needed to rebuild destroyed cities, infrastructure, factories and plants. The capitalist states of Europe began to transfer migrant labour by trains and ships. The Italian, German and EU monopolies dropped anchor in poor countries such as Turkey, Greece, etc. and materialized one of the biggest migrant labour transfers of the era. Germany, by introducing the Gastarbeiter (guest worker) programme, had the heaviest, dirtiest and most risky jobs done by migrant workers. The exploitation of migrant labour is of decisive importance in the resurgence of capitalism in Europe. New legal regulations and exploitation techniques have been introduced in the exploitation of migrant workers.
Another model that inspired world capitalism emerged in the Gulf Arab countries. The huge labour camps prototyped in the Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, served as a laboratory for the spread of the exploitation of migrant labour to other continents. Migrant workers are employed predominantly in the construction and oil industries and they are housed in wards built mainly in deserts, having to endure a long-lasting camp life. The social life of the workers outside the workplace is very limited. Regardless of their country of origin, migrant workers are forced to live according to Sharia law. Labourers brought to the Gulf countries in caravans from the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Turkey and many other countries were turned into precarious workers through a practice called “kafala system”. Kafala is a sponsorship system. In order for a migrant worker to work in the Gulf Arab countries, he or she needs the guarantees of “employers” or companies. This labour system, which is also in accordance with Sharia law, makes the migrant worker a slave of the bosses. In case of a dispute, the “employer” terminates their sponsorship and the migrant worker is deported, having lost all their pending payments before the Sharia courts. Besides the colonisation of Africa and Latin America and the enslavement of indigenous peoples, the Kafala system of exploitation in the Gulf has created a huge accumulation of capital. For the international monopolies, this system became the model for new exploitation techniques. International companies, which recruited workers from other countries, gradually applied more original forms of this exploitation technique in Europe, the USA and other continents.
In both UN and ILO data, the term “migrant population” refers to a broader definition that includes refugees. The world’s migrant population is expected to reach 300 million by the end of 2022, and 89 million of them are displaced persons, i.e. refugees. Forced to leave their countries due to political oppression, exile, civil wars, conflicts and wars caused by imperialism and capitalist reaction, refugees are forced to work in the most precarious jobs in order to survive. This is caused by the fact that the social protection rights for refugees gained in the 20th century, particularly the 1951 Geneva Convention on Refugees, are being rapidly dismantled. Another factor contributing to the liquidation of the gains of migrant workers was the destruction of the international gains of socialism and the working class struggle. As the organised power of the working class weakened, migrant workers became more vulnerable. In the past, refugees could live under social protection and without having to work for a certain period of time (adaptation, education, integration process), but by the 21st century the situation had changed significantly. In this century, the rule has become almost as if “you will work even if it is precarious, the refugee who does not work will not survive, they will die”. Thus, refugees have been caught in the web of opportunist networks, labour brokers, subcontractors, unregulated workshops, unregistered exploitation that feeds the subcontracted production chain and the black labour market. The veneer of the “millennium age” has opened the door to such a ruthless system of exploitation.
While today’s world is struggling with the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and economic problems, the imperialists, who are responsible for all these evils, are creating new mechanisms of exploitation under the name of “humanitarian and regular migration management”. In the name of “global economic growth”, the giant monopolies of the world have carried their plans to inflate their coffers to the imperialist economic summits. Thus, strategies for “inclusion of migrant labour in the labour market” started to be marketed to the countries of the world as a “new global development model”. The working class all over the world is being attacked from all sides by imperialist unions such as G7 and G20, as well as through strategies such as the EU’s “New Pact on Migration and Asylum”. One aspect of these attacks is the use of migrant labour as a cheap and precarious competitive force.
With summits such as the L20 (Labour 20), organised under the G20, trade unions are used as tools for this project. “Social dialogue” unionism is used as a bridge to legitimise the exploitation of migrant labour and to subordinate the working class to capital. This whole process serves the further scaling back of the rights of refugees and the exploitation of migrant workers in cheaper and more precarious ways.[3]
The “New Pact on Migration and Asylum” prepared by the Council of Europe and put into force on 1 January 2021, as a unique move of the global strategy of capital, traps migrants and refugees. With the new pact, the European monopoly union, which halted the refugee crossings to Europe, put into effect the project of “temporary contract migrant workers” in order to eliminate the employment gap.[4] Countries like Turkey and Libya were assigned the task of subcontracting this project. Britain is trying to implement a similar plan in Rwanda, first as a “migrant depot” and then as a “migrant labour depot”.
Turkey in Migrant Labour Transfer
The number of displaced and internally displaced persons in Syria has approached half of the country’s population. It is estimated that there are more than 4 million Syrians in Turkey alone. Almost half of that population has become precarious labourers. Child refugees, who should be in school, have rapidly become workers. The imperialist wars of plunder, exploitation and redistribution have brought along a profitable area of exploitation such as the sharing of migrant labour in addition to oil, natural gas, land and hegemony.
Capitalists demanding cheap and precarious migrant labour through the international migrant smuggling network, where millions of dollars are exchanged, work in cooperation with each other through their intertwined and intricate relations. For instance, the young members of the migrant groups travelling from Kabul, Afghanistan to Istanbul know the workplaces or workshops where they will work even before they set off. Human traffickers, who also use the internet and social media, put migrant workers on the market through channels such as Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, WhatsApp, etc. The migrant labour market is woven like a spider web not only in Turkey but all over the world. Through digital instruments bosses can access a lot of information ranging from the age and weight of the migrant labourer to their work experience and passport-size photo. A significant portion of them get caught in the net of labour brokers after entering the country. So much so that private employment agencies are rapidly becoming “migrant labour transfer agencies”. Behind the scenes, these bureaus also bring unregistered migrant workers to the “labour market”.
According to data from the Directorate General of Migration Management, the total number of migrant workers in Turkey who were granted work permits was 115,837 in 2018, and it reached 145,232 in 2019. The distribution of the migrant worker population by country of origin in 2018 was as follows: Syria: 34,573, Kyrgyzstan: 13,452, Georgia: 7,321, Ukraine: 6,394, Turkmenistan: 5,547, Uzbekistan: 3,969, Nepal: 3,186, Azerbaijan: 2,997, Russia: 2,994, China: 2,992, Iran: 2,689, Indonesia: 2,356, Philippines: 2,076, Kazakhstan: 1,799, and India: 1,663.[5]
The data show that the Turkish bourgeoisie resorts to the multinational exploitation of migrant labour. The number of unregistered migrant workers is not documented but it is estimated that nearly 2 million migrant/refugee workers are employed without any social security. In the informal sector, the number of countries of origin begins to multiply and countries such as Armenia, Iraq, Pakistan and countries from Africa emerge.
In fact, the “migrant labour industry” in Turkey has already taken a certain shape in terms of sectors: Syrian workers in textiles and shoemaking, Afghans in shepherding, Georgian workers in tea picking, Azerbaijani workers in construction, workers from African countries in transport and denim washing, Pakistani workers in waste paper and plastic collection, Uzbek, Filipino and Turkmenistan women workers in elderly and child care. Of course, this category does not contain sharp distinctions and it is possible to find workers of more than one nationality in each line of work. But the overall picture that emerges on the basis of sectors shows how capitalists transfer a reserve labour army from abroad through human traffickers (just like oil transported through pipelines). In its 20-year-rule the AKP government has put this wheel of exploitation created by the “new migration management” at the disposal of capital in the most effective way.
Which Syrians?
At this point, it is necessary to dwell on a concept that is often used among Turkish workers to confuse them: “Syrians”! This exclusionary concept is used as a veil blurring class contradictions. However, neither Syrians nor Turks are a “classless” mass. Syrians or Syrian refugees include people from different classes and strata. From the beginning, the war in Syria went hand in hand with the war economy, and in this process the war profiteers have emerged and got rich. People who were dispossessed during the war and rapidly became workers fell into the net of the “war-rich”. Syrians who were workers in their own country before the war were driven to lower-status jobs in exile, working longer hours and cheaper.
According to data from the Directorate General of Migration Management on 26 February 2019, the number of companies in Turkey with at least one Syrian partner is 15,159. The mechanism of exploitation moved to Turkey together with its factories, machinery and tools of labour. The “Syrian capital owners belonging to the opposition” who settled in Turkey and took control in the diaspora started by exploiting their own citizens. Syrian workers employed informally and at low wages in textile factories, workshops, store and restaurant chains became the new basis of enrichment. While Syrian capitalists became part of the Turkish bourgeoisie, Syrian workers became part of the Turkish working class. This is the class reality that is hidden by generalizations like the “Syrians”.
11 years passed like this, will the next 11 years be the same?
Turkey began to implement the “Temporary Protection” status for Syrian asylum seekers in 2013-14. Millions of refugees, who were not registered even until then, are literally exploited without any rules. Capitalists of the informal sector, especially in agriculture, textile and construction, have made serious money from Syrian workers. Seeing this trend, the big bosses’ organisation TISK “objected” to the process with its own reasons. For this purpose, it published a report titled “Opinions, Expectations and Suggestions of the Turkish Business World on Syrians in Turkey” in 2014. In summary, this report demanded the transfer of migrant workers to medium and large-sized factories and proposed legal regulations and projects to the government. This is how the legal restriction was introduced on the employment of a maximum of 10 foreign workers per 100 employees in every factory. But the number of registered migrant workers with social security remained at 34 thousand for Syrians. This is because the current “Labour Law for Foreigners” takes the right to apply for a work permit away from the refugee workers and gives it to the bosses; thus, placing the other end of the chain around the neck of migrant workers into the hands of the capitalists. Moreover, capitalists who consider the worker’s right to social security as an unnecessary expense that increases costs do not want to employ registered workers. In 2020, TISK published the “Migrants’ Adaptation to the Labour Market Report” which demands additional regulations from the government for the employment of migrant workers in large factories. Thus, following the unregistered workshops, the heaviest, dirtiest, most dangerous and cheapest jobs will be identified in modern Organised Industrial Zones.
In summary, the monopoly capitalists in Turkey are not satisfied with the steps taken so far in the 11th year of migration and insist on attracting cheap and precarious Syrian labour to big factories in the near future. In addition, TISK, the union of big capitalists, aims to put pressure on the gains of domestic workers (working hours, wages, holidays, etc.) through migrant labour. This paradise of cheap labour, which is flourishing in Turkey, right next to Europe, is growing like a new Bangladesh, a new India.
What about the trade unions?
While capitalist organisations such as TİSK, TÜSİAD, MÜSİAD are constantly planning on the exploitation of migrant workers, trade unions are very inert. The trade union bureaucracy is almost paving the way to capitalism’s attempts to divide the working class and forcing indigenous and migrant workers to compete.
HAK-İŞ, a confederation of trade unions, carries out trade unionism in the backyard of the government. By clinging to the discourse of “religious brotherhood”, it actually ignores the rights of refugees and migrant workers. The demand for equal rights of indigenous and migrant workers is not even an issue in its understanding of trade unionism. The largest labour confederation TÜRK-İŞ, on the other hand, has almost saluted this path of exploitation of migrant workers that capital has been travelling for the past 11 years. DİSK confederation differs from the other two confederations, with the symposiums and workshops organised in the recent period, in that they define the problem in terms of a common struggle for rights. However, there are serious problems in terms of the participation of workers, workplace representatives and trade unionists in these workshops and the implementation of the decisions taken in the factories and at the grassroots level. On the other hand, these three labour confederations continue to seek “social dialogue” with the bosses by agreeing to participate in the L20s, a sub-summit of the G20 summits.
Chauvinism aims to cripple the working class
It must be remembered that when fascist Mussolini and Hitler marched to power they used xenophobia. Today’s imperialism, using previous historical experiences, paves the way for fascist ideologies, racist fascist movements and parties through xenophobia. Fascist leaders are once again being glamorised. Since fascism has a dark shadow in the history of humanity, the steps taken are still tentative. In Turkey, too, prototype parties are emerging and being created. For example, the Zafer (Victory) Party, in competition with the neofascist parties of Europe, embraces anti-immigrant sentiments. Sometimes the one-man government and other times the bourgeois opposition benefit from the discourse of this party.
The main enemy of fascist chauvinist ideology is the workers. Fascism exists to break the working class struggle or take it under its control through reaction. The working class must never give in to chauvinism and must fight fiercely against it by bringing forward the unity of struggle of indigenous and migrant workers. With the provocations of the capitalists and their political representatives aiming to divide the working class, refugee workers are being targeted. Thus, workers who are angry about the economic crisis, poverty and unemployment can point to refugees and say “They came and took our jobs”. This conclusion, which may seem right at first glance, is in fact false. However, since it is wrong and superficial, it leads the workers with spontaneous consciousness to bourgeois consciousness. It is actually the capitalists who take away jobs and bread and push the local workers to the depths of poverty by employing cheap and precarious migrant labour. Those who benefit from labour competition are the ones who actually hold the tap of exploitation in their hands. And of course, it is the bourgeois governments that coordinate all this as an order of competition that intensifies exploitation. For workers to grasp this reality, they need to become conscious of their class.
The antidote to chauvinism is workers’ internationalism. “Left” “socialist” movements that are not based on workers’ socialism cannot make a consistent fight against chauvinism; they cannot get rid of bourgeois currents. This is why they always produce defective policies on immigrants and migrant workers.
One of the popular debates in Turkey today is the debate on “sending refugees back to Syria”. So, what should be the attitude of the working class on this issue? First of all, indigenous workers who have been working alongside their class brothers and sisters, the refugee workers, for the past 11 years should defend their rights without hesitation. For example, what happened to the usurped social security premiums of refugee workers who have been working without any insurance in the last decade? What about the right to a pension? What will happen to the severance payments, etc. that have been forfeited? What about the unpaid compensation to the families of refugee workers who lost their lives in unsafe workplaces? What happens to the workers who became disabled in work related accidents? How can the discussion of repatriation be held without acknowledging the retroactive rights for the past decade, which have been ruthlessly grinded under the wheels of intensive exploitation? Part of the exploitation that is being hidden behind the chauvinist wave is hidden in these questions.
A question frequently encountered in our party’s work in the factories and workplaces is the following: “Are you on the side of the Syrians or us?” Yet, taking sides with one of them would actually be falling into the trap of the bourgeoisie because this is a class-based problem, and in the confrontation of labour against capital, native and migrant workers have common interests against the bourgeoisie. For this reason, opposing the brutal exploitation of migrant workers actually means defending the interests of native workers.
A decent living wage for all workers, decent working hours, a safe, secure and unionised working life… These are the priority demands that will eliminate the distinction between migrant and native workers. The breaking of chauvinism depends on the struggle of the working class for its own demands without discrimination on the basis of race, religion or language.
Examples of Joint Struggle and Organisation
In the 11th year of Syrian migration, we have also seen examples of joint struggle and unionisation that broke down the walls of prejudice.
– In the footwear and leather production sector, there were actual strikes in 16 cities. Intermittent work stoppages went on for a total of two months, with two years apart. Native workers and Syrian workers were organised in the same committees. Press statements were made in Turkish and Arabic. The revolutionary party of the working class distributed leaflets, published brochures and posters in both languages in order to make the strikes widespread and successful. Ömer Şeref, a Syrian shoe-worker who took part in the strike, told Evrensel newspaper: “Along with other workers, my Syrian friends are happy to get a wage rise but they are happier because we are united and not excluded. No one considered the differences in the protest. Everyone was a shoe worker, everyone was brothers and sisters, and we won.”[6]
– The strike of agricultural workers in Çukurova, in southern Turkey, ended with a victory before nightfall. The wages of Turkish, Kurdish and Syrian workers were increased. In Torbalı, Izmir, local agricultural workers, who had been provoked against refugee workers and even involved in attacks, put aside discrimination and came together in a joint strike. In the district, the 8-hour work day was implemented and daily payments were reset.[7]
– Syrian textile workers from Antep participated in the 120 work stoppages in January 2022. In addition, some Syrian workers organised in the union were dismissed and joined the resistance.[8]
– Meryem, a Syrian worker who had been working in a meat factory in Beylikdüzü, Istanbul for 5 years, was dismissed due to trade union organisation. Meryem, who acted jointly with Turkish workers, said that after the unionisation effort, the view of other workers of her at the workplace changed. Stating that before the struggle, workers discriminated against her to the point of “making her cry”, Meryem said, “I fought not only for myself but for all workers. I would do it again”.[9]
– Turkish and Syrian workers at Izmir Işıkkent Shoemakers Site staged a joint protest. Chanting slogans “Shoemakers out” and “Workers are brothers, bosses are pricks”, the workers came together in the square and made a press statement.[10] Yet, in the same workplace two years ago, local workers had organised another protest, shouting “We don’t want Syrian workers”.
– Labour Party Izmir Provincial Organisation made a statement at the graves of three Syrian workers who were burnt to death in Izmir. Demonstrations were held with the participation of DİSK Food Workers Union and labour and democracy forces against the workplace murders in İstanbul Büyükçekmece and Güngören, demanding that the perpetrators to be punished. The murder of textile worker Ali el Hemdan at the hands of the police was prevented from being covered up with the efforts of the Adana Bar Association and the forces of labour and democracy, and the police officer responsible was imprisoned.
And a final example from France: Emmanuel Macron, the French President, targeted migrant workers, using the pension law as an excuse. The CGT union mobilised precarious migrant workers, the so-called “paperless workers”, in a de facto general strike. The bosses had to back down.[11]
It is clear that the working class, native and migrant, is learning from its own struggle. Workers are accumulating a common memory and experience against the attacks of capital. Recently, we have also seen Syrian workers organise through WhatsApp groups and negotiate wages in factories. Clearly, if these initiatives are not combined with a modern and common union organisation, they also carry the risk of turning into a network of labour brokers. On the other hand, the struggles for common rights, which are still mostly taking place in the lower and informal sectors, need to be discussed among modern industrial workers, and all these struggles need to be transformed into the idea of a common organisation. This is because the capitalists want to employ migrant workers as a reserve army of precarious labour in large factories as well. There is no doubt that the future of the working class depends on organisation in modern industry, in the main enterprises, in heavy industry and in the basic service sectors. And working class parties have to build an organising strategy in their countries that includes the organisation of migrant workers in all these areas.
The task of socialists is to enlighten the workers by exposing the new migration strategy of capital. There is no room for vacillating here. The problem is a class problem inherent in capitalism and is also political. If it is a question of the struggle against the capitalist order of exploitation, migrant proletarians must also be included in the class struggle and the socialist struggle. Neither migrant nor native workers have a choice against the parties of capital. But in Turkey there is a revolutionary party of the working class.
This is not the party of workers of this or that nationality, but only the party of the working class of all nationalities living in the country, and only such a party can lead the struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie and reaction.
* Ercüment Akdeniz is the Chair of the Labour Party
- IOM (2019) World Migration Report 2020, https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/wmr_2020.pdf ↑ILO (2021) ILO Küresel Yabancı Göçmen İşçi Tahminleri, https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—europe/- –ro-geneva/—ilo-ankara/documents/genericdocument/wcms_811865.pdf ↑
- ITUC (t.y.) L20, https://www.ituc-csi.org/l20?lang=en ↑
- Akdeniz, E. (2020) “AB’nin mültecilerle savaşı: 10 soruda ‘yeni göç ve iltica planı’” [EU’s war against migrants: ‘The new plan for migration and asylum seeking’ in 10 questions], Evrensel, https://www.evrensel.net/yazi/87237/abnin-multecilerle-savasi-10-soruda-yeni-goc-ve-iltica-plani ↑
- Mülteciler DerneğI [Refugee Association] (2020) “Türkiye’de Çalışma İzni Verilen Suriyeli Sayısı” [The number of Syrians with work permit in Turkey], https://multeciler.org.tr/turkiyede-ca- lisma-izni-verilen-suriyeli-sayisi/ [In Turkish] ↑
- Akkaş C and M. Baylav (2017), Evrensel, https://www.evrensel.net/haber/331882/saya-iscileri-on-yargilari-asarak-kazandi ↑
- Ud, M. (2018), Evrensel, https://www.evrensel.net/haber/356941/turkiyeli-ve-suriyeli-tarim-iscilerinin-birligi-sonuc-verdi ↑
- Kaya, A. (2021), Sözcü, https://www.sozcu.com.tr/2021/gundem/turk-ve-suriyeli-isciler-yan-yana-grevde-6616225/ ↑
- Tok, H. and E. Ergine (2022), Evrensel, https://www.evrensel.net/haber/461394/suriyeli-isci-turkiyeli-iscilerle-birlikte-hakkini-aradi-isten-atil-di-yine-yaparim ↑
- Gazete Duvar (2017), https://www.gazeteduvar.com.tr/ekonomi/2017/09/21/izmirde-turkiyeli-ve-suriyeli-isciler-ortak-eylem-yapti ↑
- Uztopal, D. (2019), Evrensel, https://www.evrensel.net/haber/388639/150-gocmen-isci-fransa-isci-sinifina-katilma-mucadelesini-nasil-kazandi ↑