Syrian labour in the Turkish economy

Public Seminar Series, Trinity term 2018

Series convenor: Dr Ali Ali

About the speaker

Emre Eren Korkmaz is a post-doctoral researcher at Oxford's Department of International Development and a British Academy Newton International Fellow.

He is a political scientist and his current work focuses on the participation of Turkey-origin migrants in the public sphere via trade unions and explores this in a comparative perspective, drawing on the German, Dutch and UK cases. The research synthesises Habermasian public sphere theory with the theory of transnational social space. Its core contribution to contemporary debates about the public sphere is its novel evaluation of migrant networks.

In addition to his research profile, Eren has extensive work experience in the field on the labour-market integration of Syrian refugees in Turkey. He was a migrant-refugee specialist at Ethical Trading Initiative’s Turkey Program between August 2016 and April 2017 working with corporations sourcing from Turkey, Turkish suppliers, trade unions, NGOs and authorities to propose policies to support decent and legal work for refugees. He also worked as a consultant for the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) between July 2017 and October 2017. He is the co-author of a BHRRC report, “What’s changed for Syrian refugees in Turkish garment supply chains?” that examines policies of transnational corporations towards Syrian refugees in Turkey. He was the co-organiser of the workshop “Company action to address exploitation of refugee garment workers” at St Edmund Hall in October 2017 to discuss the initial findings of the research.

Eren completed his PhD in International Relations at Istanbul University, Faculty of Political Science. He submitted his MA in Turkish Studies at Sabancı University, Istanbul, which compared three transnational solidarity campaigns of trade unions from Turkey.