Given that the large share of Turkey’s workforce remains at present outside the world
of full-time, stable and protected employment, there is renewed interest in informal
labour markets. In other words, discussing about, writing on and/or researching informal
labour markets is rather fashionable in Turkey. The literature on the informal sector
exists in two main lines. The first line of studies deals with the growing problem of
the informal sector, using the term ‘poverty’; these consider poverty as sui generis
and consider the informal sector as the cause and consequence of poverty. The second
line is grounded on labour-friendly researches conducted by trade unionists or people
standing by the world of labour. Both of these two lines exist in the form of ‘journalistic’
enquiries providing a rather descriptive and empirical analysis of the informal
sector. They do tell us about what is happening but they certainly miss why it is happening;
facts never speak of themselves and, hence, the real question is the why. This
article therefore aims to examine why there is a growing informal labour market in
Turkey, what its main characteristics are and what can be done – or to put it differently,
what are the possible politics for the labour front.