Differences in industrial learning behavior of Turkish workers at home and abroad: causes and consequences

In: Social, Economic and Political Studies of the Middle East. Vol. XVI, S. 95-123

Abstract

"For industrialization to succeed, Turkey needs to develop an industrial labor force from a population largely rural and, for the most part, minimally educated and unaccustomed to industrial mores. This chapter analyzes the problems associated with converting this predominantly rural population into an industrial labor force. A simple model of the conversion process is presented and applied to a unique set of data on Turkish workers employed at home and in West Germany. From the analysis, factors essential to this process are first isolated. An estimate is then obtained of the constraint placed upon Turkey's joining the European Common Market as an industrial competitor by the lack of an existing industrial labor force. The analysis shows that a potential exists for Turkey to use returned migrants as a basis for an industrial labor force and thus by-pass a large portion of the costs of generating industrial labor domestically." ((en))