Permanently temporary: unveiling the im/mobility and intersecting vulnerabilities of migrant seasonal agricultural workers in disaster-affected areas of Türkiye

Deniz Pelek, CASAS’ member, has published this article in Agriculture and Human Values with Cemil Yıldızcan & Ethemcan Turhan.

Abstract: Migrant seasonal agricultural workers around the world constitute the backbone of labor-intensive agriculture while facing the most grim consequences of societal, economic and environmental changes from slow and rapid on-set hazards. Here we examine the impact of flash floods and the recent earthquake (February 2023) on seasonal agricultural migrant workers in Türkiye. Adopting the slow and silent violence approaches (Nixon, 2011; Watts, 2013), we explore the structural inequalities present before the disasters and analyse the intersecting vulnerabilities shaped by environmental, socio-economic, and political factors during and after these events. We argue that the relatively invisible slow violence and more visible forms of violence overlap in the case of seasonal agricultural workers and migration status of the workers strongly influence their im/mobilization in disaster-affected areas. Immobilization in rural ghettos has facilitated the recovery of land and agricultural production as well as social reproduction in rural communities. This observation necessitates rethinking the role of worker im/mobility not only as a factor in production and social reproduction but also as a central component in disaster recovery. Therefore, we suggest a time-space nexus shaped by the analytical tools of violence and mobility to contribute to the literature on disasters and critical agrarian studies.

Read their full article here: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-025-10761-w

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