Beyond Illegality: The Gendered In- Securities of Illegal Armenian Care Workers in Turkey

Abstract

In the migration literature, there has been a shift of interest from studying exclusionary policies of states that result in the criminalization of ‘illegal’ migrants towards more subtle forms of incorporation. In this paper, I will examine such as migration regime imposed upon illegal Armenian migrant care workers, which is characterized by the conditional acceptance of illegality rather than by strict punishments and deportation. Within this context, Armenian migrant care workers are caught in a legal limbo of belonging and non-belonging. The paper argues that the terms of belonging and non- belonging are traversable normative-legal categories negotiated by everyday actors in a way that often crisscross gender and class hierarchies. Migrant women could become more acceptable if they comply with certain gendered expectations and norms of work while at the same time could easily become deportable. At the same time, this article demonstrates that this legal limbo increases the gendered vulnerabilities and labour precarity in women’s everyday lives

Keywords

• Illegality and gender,migration and violence,legal liminality,Turkey’s migration regime

Yasadışılığın Ötesi: Ermeni Kadınların Toplumsal Cinsiyet Temelli Güvencesizlikleri

Abstract

Göç literatüründe ilgi, devletlerin göçmenleri ‘yasadışı’ ilan eden dışlayıcı politikalarından devletlerin göçmenleri inceden inceye topluma entegre eden politikalarına yönelmiştir. Bu çalışma, sınır dışı etmekten çok müsamahaya dayanan bu tip bir göç rejiminin Türkiye’de göçmen kadınlara yönelik gelişimini incelemektedir. Türkiye’de Ermeni ev işçileri göçmen kadınlarla yapılan mülakatlara dayanarak bu çalışma yeni tip göç rejiminin yarattığı yasal belirsizlik durumunu incelemektedir. Bu durum, göçmenleri yasal bir aidiyet ile aidiyet olmama durumu ikileminde bırakmaktadır. Aynı zamanda makalede bu yasaya dayalı ve resmi kategorilerin aynı zamanda nasıl sınıf ve toplumsal cinsiyet dayalı kültürel normlarla yoğurulduğunu tartışmaktadır. Göçmen kadınlar eğer işverenler tarafından baskın toplumsal cinsiyet normlarına atıfla tanımlanan makbul kadın ve makbul işçi olurlarsa, yasadışı göçmen statüsü görünmez olmaktadır. Fakat, kadınlar makbul kadın algısının dışına çıkarlarsa yasadışılık görünür olmakta ve onları hem devlet, hem erkek, hem de işveren şiddetine maruz bırakmaktadır

Keywords

• Yasadışılık ve toplumsal cinsiyet,göç ve şiddet,yasal liminallik,Türkiye’nin göçrejimi

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