Türkiye and HRDF

Migration and population growth, which started from rural to urban areas as a result of industrialization and the development of market economy in Turkiye since the end of the fifties, encouraged the intellectuals who examined the development process in Türkiye half a century ago, as they do today, and caused them to worry equally and perhaps even more.

 

The common concern of the academician specialized in population, as well as the businessman and manager working in the kitchen of development, who came together to establish the Human Resources Development Foundation in 1988, was that population growth and development in Türkiye were taking place in an irregular and unregulated manner. Türkiye has rapidly urbanized, cities have turned into industrial centers, and "gecekondu" settlements around the cities have already begun to form the dominant social structure of the city. Although the traces of the rural lifestyles of the population migrating to the city still remain one of the important determinants of the social structure in Türkiye, urban life and the needs of the industrial society have changed the structure and characteristics of the new urban population and led to new needs coming to the agenda. In parallel with the failure to meet these needs in accordance with the obligations of the modern state, Türkiye has always maintained its characteristic of being a developing country in an unhealthy and unequal manner in terms of enjoying basic human rights and accessing services.

 

First of all, the fertility preferences of the urbanizing population have changed; due to the decreasing economic value of the number of children, women's participation in working life, and similar reasons, more families have started to want to have fewer children. However, reproductive health services have always fallen behind the demand in our country in the past as well as today. Due to the high fertility rate of the population migrating to cities, the young population has increased rapidly, and traditional sexual education methods that function in rural areas have lost their effectiveness in urban areas. Young people may engage in risky sexual behavior as a result of incorrect sexual information they hear from their friends or obtain through the media. Although these young people can be given information about how to regulate their sexual lives in a healthy way under very favorable conditions in schools, a radical transformation in the education system has still not been achieved in this regard. While the waves of modernization in Türkiye bring the issue of equality between men and women to the agenda, women who are deprived of the protection of traditional gender roles are forced to struggle with men in the unequal conditions of modern life. Programs that can eliminate gender inequality, which can be detected in almost every aspect of the social sphere, are not yet widely implemented in our country.

 

Violence is widely practiced in every field and especially against women. Marginal groups also receive their share of violence; for example, attacks against trans women who do sex work are increasing. The culture of violence is so widespread and effective that the positive results of the legal regulations can go unnoticed and the issue can become a matter of debate in the political arena.

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Industrialization and development in Türkiye takes place so unregulated and unhealthy that people are employed in unhealthy conditions and without security, in violation of international agreements and laws, and part of these employees are even children.

 

Developments such as globalization, the widening gap between countries' economic development, regional instability, local wars and many other factors have increased cross-border migration movements all over the world. While Türkiye was an emigration country in the sixties, migration flows towards Türkiye started especially in the 1990s. Among these immigrants, there are refugees escaping from conflicts or the negative living conditions of their home countries, as well as migrant workers who want to earn money and return to their countries, or temporary guests who are looking for shelter until the unrest in their countries ends.

 

In addition to asylum seekers and refugees trying to survive under difficult living conditions in Türkiye, migrant workers working illegally, victims of human trafficking who are subjected to the most severe form of brutal human rights violations, and especially women, constitute the groups that need support. Türkiye's laws and established practices and inadequate resources are often not sufficient to meet the needs of these people.

 

While Türkiye is experiencing all these changes, the Human Resources Development Foundation has been trying to meet the needs arising in this process and trying to stand by the vulnerable groups with the programs it has developed and the projects it has implemented for more than thirty-five years.