Neoliberal restructuring and social exclusion in Turkey

Abstract

Poverty always existed in Turkey as a social fact, but open public and academic debate on it was not common until relatively recently. Only in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in the Marmara region in 1999 and then the economic crisis of 2001, has poverty come to occupy a significant place in both scholarly studies and policy-making. Yet, at the same time, the term poverty has proved inadequate for grasping the entire range of social processes that lead to and perpetuate various forms of deprivation - not just lack or lowness of income - and therefore we need other analytical tools. In this chapter, I am going to use two concepts, social exclusion and dispossession, in conjunction with each other, to discuss the impact of neoliberal globalization on various social groups in Turkey. While neoliberal globalization creates new arenas for market penetration and hence presents fresh opportunities for capital accumulation by some groups, it also brings already underprivileged segments of society under stricter market discipline. The expansion of the rule of markets often works through (further) dispossession of people and thus creates social exclusion. Guided by these concepts, one of the aims of this chapter is to review some of the main mechanisms through which social exclusion has been reinforced and is being reproduced in Turkey in the past two decades. Another important aim is to discuss social policy responses to increasing social exclusion. First of all, the conflict in southeastern and eastern Turkey between the army and the Kurdish combatants (PKK Kurdistan Workers’ Party) has triggered processes of social exclusion, by causing economic collapse and forced internal displacement of the rural Kurdish population. Second, and parallel to that, neoliberal agricultural policies continued to push “voluntary” migrants from rural areas to cities. Simultaneously, rural poverty continued to increase. Third, once in the cities, forced and voluntary migrants faced conditions which were not suitable for their socioeconomic integration, since neoliberal policies have also had a big impact on urban housing and labor markets. Once poverty and social exclusion became more visible as a result of abrupt migration during the 1990s, excluded groups or various forms of exclusion also became the object of policy-making and a part of policy discussions. Regarding the sphere of policy, my argument will be twofold. On the one hand, previously neglected forms of exclusion were for the first time targeted by social policies.