Temporal Horizons and Labor Value: The Incorporation of Syrian Healthcare Professionals in Turkey

Sociology Talks

Temporal Horizons and Labor Value: The Incorporation of Syrian Healthcare Professionals in Turkey

The literature on the incorporation of migrant healthcare professionals into public health systems has focused predominantly on their practical experiences in equivalency processes, the significance of mentorship to their career pathways, and provided concrete policy recommendations to facilitate “integration”, but there remains a dearth of research exploring the value associated with their labor. In 2016, in an effort to expand primary healthcare access and uptake among Syrian refugees, the Turkish state established Migrant Healthcare Centers across Turkey where Syrian healthcare professionals may work. The initiative while innovative on many levels raises questions about healthcare professionals’ labor and their positioning as refugees-turned-workers. Based on fieldwork carried out in 2018 in five Migrant Health Centers and interviews with 21 healthcare professionals, this paper seeks to advance discussions on healthcare professionals’ labor by exploring their labor conditions and temporal horizons embedded into the labor incorporation. In this talk, Osseiran argues that the overall success in increasing service provision or overcoming barriers to healthcare access, hide the differential inclusion of refugee healthcare professionals and the different registers of value associated with their labor.

Souad Osseiran

Koç University

Post-Doctoral Fellow

January 5, 2023

14.00

Şerif Mardin Seminar Room

Contact: soc@boun.edu.tr