Are Resources Wasted?: Employment and Career Barriers for Educated Refugee Women in Turkey (WOS-Q1-Special Issue)
Event: WOS-Q1-Special Issue
Are Resources Wasted?: Employment and Career Barriers for Educated Refugee Women in Turkey
This special issue focuses on why refugee women in Turkey are not employed after completing vocational training, and the obstacles in their career paths. It aims to evaluate and expand available theoretical frameworks and provide more effective policy recommendations.
Guest editors:
Dr. Men?ure Alk?? Küçükayd?n (corresponding editor), Eregli Faculty of Education, Necmettin Erbakan University, Turkey
Email: mensurealkis@hotmail.com
Dr. Hakan Ulum, Eregli Faculty of Education, Necmettin Erbakan University, Turkey
Email: hakanulum@gmail.com
Dr. Ömer Gökhan Ulum, Faculty of Education, Mersin University, Turkey
Email: omergokhanulum@gmail.com
Special issue information:
Turkey, a country of 85 million inhabitants, hosts as many as 3.5 million Syrian refugees, 46% of whom are women and children (General Directorate of Migration Management, 2021). Turkey is home to the largest number of refugees in the world (UNHCR, 2022), making it a unique laboratory for the employment of refugee women in Turkey. Therefore, it seems important to examine in depth the post-vocational training employment problems of refugee women in Turkey and explain how these experiences can be made sense of in a global context.
In line with international agreements, vocational training programs have been offered to refugee women with the support of institutions, organizations, civil society movements in Turkey, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the World Food Programme (WFP). In addition, with the support of the United Nations (UN), projects have been developed in connection with livelihoods programs to ensure a smooth transition from education to work life for adult refugees in Turkey. According to the Syrians Barometer Report (Erdo?an, 2021), 91,205 refugee women and 35,701 refugee men under temporary protection in Turkey were included in vocational training through these projects, but only 60% of refugee women and 70% of refugee men were employed after vocational training. Although the number of refugee women involved in vocational training is three times higher than the number of refugee men, the employment rate is 10% lower than that of men (Demirci & K?rdar, 2023). Women refugees may face additional challenges as a combination of gender role expectations in their home country and host country expectations. They are more likely to be victims of sexual violence, assume traditional family roles, be labelled as widows, and face discrimination in their new homes (Saksena & McMorrow, 2021).
Thus, despite their inclusion in vocational training, refugee women's employment and entry into the work force are lagging. Scholarship on migration explains this lag as the result of a double disadvantage, the refugee status and gender (Donato et al., 2014). This is related to intersectionality theory (Crenshaw, 1989; 1991), which challenges the treatment of race, gender, sexuality and class as privileged categories. Intersectionality predicts that educated refugee women face barriers related to their gender and refugee status in Turkey. Other scholarship on this topic (Almakhamreh et al., 2022; Paz & Kook ,2021; Samuels & Ross-Sheriff, 2008) suggests that refugee women are set behind by structural political factors (Yacob-Haliso, 2016) and macro-level systems of oppression in the host society. While intersections between differences among refugee women and oppressive systems have been discussed by refugee scholars (Maturi, 2023; Senthanar et al., 2021), the intersectionality framework has not been applied to the Turkish context, where refugee women are most concentrated. In the Turkish context, intersectionality is too general a theory to understand how disadvantages (gender and the refugee status) interact with advantages (education). This special issue hopes to refine intersectionality theory by addressing the employment barriers of educated refugee women.
This special issue discusses the trajectories of refugee women from vocational education to employment, identifies the causes for their lag, evaluates recommendations, and shares success stories. The practical solutions we propose will encourage the strengthening of the refugee women's pipeline from education to employment and career pathways. Under the March 18th agreement between Turkey and the EU (European Council, 2016), EU member states will voluntarily introduce a "Voluntary Humanitarian Admission Scheme" when irregular crossings through Turkey cease or significantly decrease. This means that refugee women who completed their vocational training can enter EU member states. Our findings will examine Turkey's vocational education program for refugees to identify areas for improvement that could serve as lessons for EU member states. Innovative solutions and policy recommendations might increase the employment of refugee women and expand the theories on refugee women's employment.
Submissions may include but are not limited to the following:
- The empowering potential of vocational training to boost employment of refugee women,
- The transformative contribution of language skills training and its impact on their ability to find a job and communicate effectively in the workplace,
- The factors explaining why educated refugee women’s lag behind Turkish men and women in finding a job and adapting to work life,
- Comparative analysis of refugee women from Europe, the Middle East, North America and other regions in the Turkish context,
- Changes in refugee women's experiences in Turkey and other host countries, accounting for temporal and spatial variables in intersectionality analyses,
- Gender inequality and discrimination faced by refugee women in job search, employment and career development,
- The importance and impact of employers' inclusive workplaces and employment policies for refugee women,
- A review of policies and programs implemented by civil society and international organizations that promote refugee women's participation in the work force,
- Examples of successful participation of refugee women in business and the factors behind their success.
Manuscript submission information:
We invite submissions from all experts and academics who analyse education of refugee women in Turkey and propose solutions to understand barriers to employment. Empirical research is preferred because of its potential to overcome barriers and support progress. This special issue aims at fostering a vibrant dialogue between academics, educators, employers, policymakers, and civil society representatives to strengthen the collective effort to prevent leakages between the education and careers of refugee women in Turkey.
Those who wish to contribute to the special issue are invited to contact the Guest Editor at [mensurealkis@hotmail.com].
Timeline for the Special Issue:
15 October, 2024 – 300 words abstract submitted to guest editor
30 October, 2024 – selected abstracts are encouraged to submit paper for the special issue
1 June, 2025 – deadline to submit manuscripts
5 June, 2025 – 1 October, 2025 – reviewing and revising
15 December 2025 – 15 February 2026 – receipt of final manuscripts, writing of the introductory article
15 March 2026 –articles linked electronically in the special issue.
References:
Almakhamreh, S., Asfour, H. Z., & Hutchinson, A. (2022). Negotiating patriarchal relationships to become economically active: An insight into the agency of Syrian refugee women in Jordan using frameworks of womanism and intersectionality. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 49(4), 595-613.
Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 139-168.
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299.
Demirci, M., & K?rdar, M. G. (2023). The labor market integration of Syrian refugees in Turkey. World Development, 162, 106138.
Donato, K. M., Piya, B., & Jacobs, A. (2014). The double disadvantage reconsidered: Gender, immigration, marital status, and global labor force participation in the 21st century. International Migration Review, 48, 335-376.
Erdo?an, Ö. (2021). Syrians barometer: A framework for achiev?ng social cohesion w?th Syrians in Türkiye. E?iten Book Publishing.
European Council (2016, 18 March). EU-Turkey Statement https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2016/03/18/euturkey-statement/
General Directorate of Migration Management (2021). Migration statistics; temporary protection data. http://www.goc.gov.tr/icerik6/gecici-koruma_363 _378_ 4713 _icerik
Maturi, J. (2023). Revisiting empowerment through critical praxis: perspectives of front-line workers supporting refugee women experiencing gendered violence in Australia. Affilia, 08861099231186199.
Paz, A., & Kook, R. (2021). ‘It reminds me that I still exist’. Critical thoughts on intersectionality; refugee Muslim women in Berlin and the meanings of the hijab. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 47(13), 2979-2996.
Saksena, J., & McMorrow, S. (2021). At the intersection of gender and discrimination: Experiences of Congolese refugee women with social and cultural integration in the United States. Women's Studies International Forum, 88, 102517.
Samuels, G. M., & Ross-Sheriff, F. (2008). Identity, oppression, and power: Feminisms and intersectionality theory. Affilia, 23(1), 5-9.
Senthanar, S., MacEachen, E., Premji, S., & Bigelow, P. (2021). Entrepreneurial experiences of Syrian refugee women in Canada: A feminist grounded qualitative study. Small Business Economics, 57(2), 835-847.
UNHCR (2022). Turkey fact sheet. https://www.unhcr.org/tr/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2022/11/Bi-annual-fact-sheet-2022-09-Turkiye.pdf
Yacob-Haliso, O. (2016). Intersectionality and durable solutions for refugee women in Africa. Journal of Peacebuilding & Development, 11(3), 53-67.
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3 May 2024
https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/womens-studies-international-forum/about/call-for-papers
Hakan Ulum