A study on local people's experiences towards Syrian agricultural workers: Erdemli case

In this study, the attitudes of agricultural business owners who employ syrian agricultural workers in Erdemli district of Mersin towards Syrian workers were investigated. Within the scope of the research, 12 participants, eight men and four women, were interviewed. The research findings were tried to be supported theoretically by the concept of cultural racism. According to the results of the research, the owners of the agricultural enterprises participating in the research; when they cannot find local workers, they turn to Syrian workers, they generally pay the same wage to local and Syrian workers, local and Syrian workers are employed without insurance, there is no language problem between agricultural operators and Syrians today, and agricultural operators express their expectation from Syrian workers to do their agricultural work properly. There have been results that are based and include working life. Other expectations of agricultural operators from Syrian workers, were that they should comply with moral and cultural norms, and these data were tried to be explained with the concept of cultural racism due to cultural discourses. Keywords: Agricultural Business Owners, Local Agricultural Workers, Syrian Agricultural Workers, Attitudes, Cultural Racism.