Labour market and its relation to identification processes: In case of Romanies of Urla-Sıra Neighbourhood

This study focuses on the labour markets impact on Roma identity. The novel question this study addresses is how the Roma living in Sıra neighbourhood (Urla-Izmir, Turkey), which is a hypergetto, perceive the labour markets with reference to their cultural identities and value sets. The study intends to shed light on the living conditions of the Roma community through carefully documenting their voices and perspectives, tactics, and practices. Accordingly, a two-year long ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Sıra Neighbourhood. By focusing on the experiences of the Roma people in regards to space, education, and labour, the thesis provides a detailed micro perspective. Gacos (non-Roma), who occupy the central positions in social fields and dominates the labour markets, substantially shape the living conditions of Roma people extensively by dictating hegemonic cultural values and life styles. In light of the theoretical discussions of poverty and the literature pertinent to ghetto-related behaviours of the poor, subjectivity regarding to Roma identification in context of ethno-racial component and subalternity is problematized. Concomitantly how cultural values and class divisions emerge in the choices of Roma people is investigated. The current literature on poverty generally focuses on the structural conditions of poverty, but on the assumption that the poor desire to become integrated into society and labour markets. Instead of ascribing the desire of articulation to the labour market to the poor, looking at the labour market directly from Roma's perspective, was a fruitful starting point to question the normalized and legitimized identity-labour relationship. In tandem with this, it was aimed to problematize the prevailing view blaming the subalterns with the responsibility of their own poverty and failure.