DOI: 10.12995/bilig.8672 ISSN: 1301-0549

An Intersectional Assessment of Ahıska Women’s Labor Market Integration: Barriers and Enabling Factors

Tamilla Şahin, Yusuf Alper
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Türkiye hosts a diverse range of migrant communities, including groups with which it shares ethnic and cultural ties. Its citizenship policies and legal frameworks extend certain privileges to Turkicorigin populations. Therefore, the Ahıska Turks, who were resettled from the former Soviet region, occupy a distinctive position within Türkiye’s migration landscape. In this context, examining the labor market participation of Ahıska women through the framework of Intersectionality Theory provides valuable insight into their integration into the labor market. This study analyzes the labor market integration of Ahıska women employed in Türkiye’s Beauty and Personal Care Sector. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 20 women in Bursa, the findings show that their sectoral participation is shaped at the intersection of gender, ethnic identity, and social class. While cultural proximity to Türkiye, social networks, professional expertise rooted in Soviet-era training, the sector’s reliance on manual skills, low entry barriers, flexible working conditions, high professional satisfaction, and its compatibility with patriarchal family structures support labor market integration, structural inequalities such as bureaucratic obstacles, diploma equivalency problems, discrimination, and stigma limit sustainable integration. The study highlights the need for inclusive policies focused on occupational training, diploma recognition, and anti-discrimination mechanisms to strengthen Ahıska women’s integration into Türkiye’s labor market.

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