As a type of informal employment; the social and economic outlook of waste pickers: The case of Ankara

Along with the neoliberal policies that have been implemented since the 1970s, social, cultural and political transformations have been experienced along with economic transformations. The increase in unemployment rate with the practice of these policies have led people to the cities in the hope of finding a job. New urban problems have emerged because of the population increase that is a result of the migration from the country to town. New urban problems arising from urbanization have made people's lives more difficult. When these circumstances met unemployment, people found themselves in informal sector. They have leaned to informal sector because the labour demand didn't meet the labour supply. In a sense, people created their own sector because of the unemployment problem. Foraging waste material is one of them. People who migrated to the cities in the hope of finding a job have to work in the informal sector in which precarity dominates. Lives of waste material gatherers who are a part of informal employment, one of the most important problems of today, is getting more difficult because there are bad and difficult work conditions in Turkey and because of rough operation, people's viewpoints, their relationship with public enterprises, informality which means they are faced with being out of laws and regulation. The aims of this study are the process of the immigration of the waste gatherers, why they started, their operation principles, living conditions and organizational forms. As a summary, to reveal their social and economic outlook. Within this context, social and economic outlook of the waste material gatherers have been observed by applying semi-structured depth interview with 17 waste material gatherers in Ankara.