Experiences of "undocumented": Kyrgyz labor migrant women in Turkey

The collapse of the Soviet Union, and the dismantlement of the Iron Curtain have brought movement of hundreds of thousands of people. This work, which was conducted in 2014-2016, looks at the stories of fifty (50) female labour migrants from Kyrgyzstan in Turkey with an undocumented immigration status. One of the main objectives of this research, among others, was to look at migration experiences, strategies before or during migration, dreams, struggles, problems, successful stories, and what role social networks play in the women's lives. Besides the mentioned empirical findings, the findings reflect on larger socio-economic tendencies on the country and global levels respectively. The lack of proper regulations regarding migrant workers in both countries Kyrgyzstan and Turkey, leave many migrant workers in "undocumented" situation. Consequently, this influences migration strategies and experiences of migrant women to a large extent. Keywords: Female Migration, Undocumented Migration, International Migration Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Social Networks