The ones we remember when they die

Seasonal traveling agriculture workers were first brought from Sudan in the 1830s to work at the Mediterranean plain, Çukurova, by the Ottoman pasha from Kavala, Kavalalı İbrahim Pasha.

In the 1930s and 40s, those who worked in agriculture would temporarily migrate to other places to work and they would be called laborers, workmen or day laborers. They would do this migration before the harvest season of their own produce, or after it.

In those years, when productivity was high in agriculture, workforce scarcity was experienced; moreover, an “Adana Guide” was even issued regarding migrating workers. We do not know if that guide was applied or not, but it was meaningful in terms of showing that, if wished, the working lives of seasonal mobile agriculture workers could be regulated.

Now, today, the seasonal traveling agriculture workers are the poorest segment of society that faces the direst circumstances. The reasons they spend a large portion of the year working as agriculture workers in places far away from where they live are the changes in the ownership of the lands where they come from, the fact that there are no job opportunities, the low income levels and the high fertility rates.

The need for seasonal workers is explained with Turkey’s mechanization in agriculture. However, the reason why such short-term jobs are still available is because there exists a segment that is eager to migrate temporarily and earn money, rather than the employees’ constituting a demand for it. 

They work in unqualified jobs. Their numbers are not known; there is no data available about them. But it is estimated that half of the population that is working in agriculture are seasonal traveling agriculture workers. Their...