| By around 1975, some men were working in Saudi Arabia; village |
| pilgrims to Mecca had a sharp eye for opportunities in building. In 1977, one successful subcontractor took a whole bus load back with him. People recruited their neighbours, for a fee, and the numbers rose rapidly. In 1980, a villager counted 100 by name, though a few of these were from households already settled in towns. In 1986, the total was over 150, mostly from village households. Earnings had dropped, and difficulties increased, which inhibited the growth of numbers, but the total seemed not to be falling. In the best years, the most successful had earned sums out of proportion to the Turkish economy, while others earned only enough to keep their village families in sufficiency. Some even made a net loss, by failing to cover the very considerable cost of getting themselves there legally. As they described it to me, a lot depended on the luck of finding a reasonable native guarantor, on a persons skill in circumventing the formal rules, and in 'social networking'. Most found it a hard dull life, a difficult climate, and complained about the Arabs. They suffered it only for the money. |
| Thus in 1950 already, S village was to some small extent a workers' |
| dormitory and a place of domestic reproduction for men employed virtually full time in the urban economy. Later, as earnings increased, and especially with international migration, remittances provided village households with opportunities to invest, so that rent and profit on urban land and on businesses further increased a few household incomes. Household heads derived considerable advantages from keeping their wives and children in the village. They already had houses, and could afford to improve or rebuild them. Most of them had land, or had parents with land, so that their families enjoyed an income from the crops and animals. A village home provided food and shelter for rest, or during unemployment. Some also said that the village base allowed them to go for work anywhere in Turkey; a nation wide labour market. Others countered that sticking to one place and building a local reputation was a more effective strategy; a local labour market. No household migrant ever admitted to anxiety about leaving a wife alone during working hours in a new urban environment, but some did express the desirability of leaving a household under the watchful eyes of village kin. |
| Those who did succeed in establishing a set of relations which |
| guaranteed earning in one place - often by becoming subcontractors - moved out of the village and into town. The main motive which they |
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| talked about was the daily comfort of wife, home and children. The women, who in 1950 feared a move to the town, by 1971 welcomed the |
| escape to a life free from some domestic and all agricultural chores. They did have problems adjusting, but time helped, both by giving individuals experience and neighbours, and by providing social knowledge and a friendly or family welcome for those who came later. The first to leave were able to occupy or buy building land, and over time construct a reasonable home, often with a small garden.These homes became substantial assets, as urban authorities became reluctant to evict squatters, and in time provided services and even titles to property. The flow from the villages continues, and by 1986 the outflow seemed roughly to balance natural increase for my two villages. One or two other villages in the area seemed still to be growing, but in a few migration had produced a net population loss. |
| Income from agriculture also rose after say 1960. Improved |
| techniques and improved seeds, plus a large increase in the use of fertilisers, increased yields of cereals, so they said, by about 50%. They also switched into cash crops - potatoes, onions and chickpeas - and two villagers began growing apples commercially. In 1971, I found 2 tractors in the village. The government was generous with credit, and the first owners profited from the great demand for their services from neighbours with migrant members. In 1986, there were 26 tractors, more than in most neighbouring villages. Most of the capital for these came from remittances, and owning a tractor became partly a matter of prestige and convenience. They used them like a family car, for driving around and visiting other villages. All this has three obvious effects. First, since all households without tractors now contract with kin or neighbours for ploughing and other jobs which tractors can do - threshing for example - the village territory can be farmed with far less labour, so more is available for export. Second, annual cash operating costs rise sharply. People either have to pay the tractor owners, or at least fund their own tractor. Fertiliser is expensive, and most people spray for weeds. Since costs are high, it no longer pays to farm the less fertile land, so some village land has gone out of cultivation. Poor harvests - not uncommon - leave farmers with net losses. So higher inputs increase yields, but they also increase risks. The external income finances operating costs, and provides a cushion against losses. Third, milk. In 1950, most households had at least two work oxen. These are now redundant - the last were sold in 1984 - and households can keep more cows. Milk is freely available as food, and a lot is marketed, providing a daily cash income. Many households have purchased cows of, or crossed with, |
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| european breeds. These are stall fed, expensive, and vulnerable to disease, but they produce twice to four times as much milk. Fourthly, the village sells a fairly large proportion of its output, and buys in inputs. The |
| government fixes the price of cereals, and of fertiliser and diesel fuel. So the farmers profits are directly in government hands. People seriously and often discuss whether it is worth farming at all; but so far no village household with land has given up more than its poorest fields. |
| Thus the greatly increased cash income from outside the village has |
| helped to transform village farming techniques, and the village farm economy. It is now in effect small agro-business; much less arduous, more productive both per decade and per person day; but perhaps worth doing only because it uses mainly family labour - women, children and the old - for whom there is no opportunity cost. 8 It does ensure food and animal feed outside the market; and of course the whole village is culturally geared to farming. |
| Since I am discussing migration, I have omitted carpet weaving; here I |
| say only that since the 1960s , S village has been part of the 'home working' sector of the Kayseri hand made carpet industry, and virtu ally all girls in S now weave hard during the winter for a very low rate per hour, which nevertheless gives a steady and useful local income to all households with young women in them. Migration and Agriculture: E village |
| E village has much more land per head than S. A few farmers are |
| quite prosperous (30 to 50 ha ); most middle farmers can survive without additional income, and some have no spare labour. The village has now some 90 tractors; around two for every five households, as against around two for every eleven households in S. But these are not 'peasants', content with their agricultural sufficiency. As in S., everyone wants more money. Those with spare labour power, and the resources to do so branch out into non agricultural activities, and the carpet industry plays a large part in the village economy. Partly perhaps by accident, partly because it has long been a administrative centre with a school and some richer and more sophisticated people, E village has produced allegedly about 100 schoolteachers, and a number of other educated professionals, including an engineer from Birmingham University; plus some small entrepreneurs and business men. It also has a great many plasterers and tilers, but the overall range of occupations is much greater, |
| 8 This point was strongly emphasised in the thesis of Dr. Mehmet Ecevit. Ecevit 1988 |
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| and the overall proportion of migrants probably less than for S. |
| Agriculture is still a central activity. Some villagers have been to and returned from Europe, some are still there, and a small proportion of people work in Arabia. But on the whole operating capital comes from remittances to a much smaller degree, and on the contrary, for the better off agricultural income is used to finance non agricultural investments.. |
| The role of remittances as insurance was illustrated for us by an |
| unusual circumstance in E village. The harvests of 1983, 1984 and 1985 were all disastrous; one year was a regional lack of rain, but two years' failures were caused by very local and exceptional late frosts. Households with other incomes weathered the storm, with difficulty. Small farming households with no labour to export suffered very greatly, forced to sell their animals, which form an essential part of annual income, and unable to finance adequate inputs for the normal harvest of 1986; a bleak outlook. Household Economies |
| A model 'pre-migration' household would have at least enough land |
| and draft animals to feed and to employ its members, and to buy in absolute necessities. In fact, the limits on production were often labour power and animal power rather than land. The household head managed and directed the work of all members, and decided their rewards. For junior members, the cost of defiance was high. But once young men are earning cash in contexts outside the household, the father's role is immediately weakened. His right to control all members' earnings theoretically remains, but he has no final sanction. What sons give their fathers is up to the sons. |
| Households, then, become multi-income management units enjoying |
| income from outside the village, from wages, carpet weaving, trade, property, as well as from land and animals. If the external income is relatively large, cultivating the household land may become secondary. The household then depends on its remittance earner, or earners. Unemployment may be disastrous. |
| When a household income comes substantially to exceed immediate |
| outgoings, the changes that may follow are diverse. For example, one man from a fairly large and prosperous household in S reported very considerable earnings in 1980, 1981,and 1982 from Saudi Arabia. But his wife became ill and died, and he had a son to marry. He claimed that all his savings disappeared on medical expenses and two marriages. |
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| But the household retained its long term goal to set up a business in |