Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, Confederation of Revolutionary Textile Workers’ Union (DİSK Tekstil) President Rıdvan Budak said the number of unregistered workers in Turkey has surpassed 2 million and is only expected to increase.
“It used to be that Turks would migrate to Germany to find work. Now we see people migrating from poorer surrounding nations to make a living in Turkey,” said Budak. He stated that people migrated from Bulgaria, Romania, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Armenia and Azerbaijan in search of work, adding that many of them ended up in the unregistered economy and in particular in the textile sector.
“According to the government, nearly half of the Turkish economy is currently unregistered. … More than 2 million foreigners are working in the informal economy,” stated Budak. “We might criticize our nation and look for ways to escape to places like Germany or France, but others look to us as their escape.”
