Could Turkey Provide the Labor Source for EU?
It is a fact that EU has an aging population and the number of people at working age is decreasing. It is also known that EU needs labor power. On the other hand countries like Germany, France, the Netherlands and Turkey have had very close economical relations throughout near history and Turkey has provided a great deal of labor force for such countries.
The question today however is “Can Turkey be a labor source to meet the EU requirements?”.
When you look at it from the Turkish window, the answer is not very promising unfortunately as EU countries have not had a very pleasant experience with Turkish laborers in the last decades.
This comment would fit in much more accurately, concerning the situation with Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland, in specific. Unfortunately it cannot be said that the Turkish workers have been able to integrate into the social life in EU countries. Most of them have lived isolated from the natives even without learning the language spoken in these countries.
To be even worse, they have not spent much effort to make sure their children get proper education to help with said integration into the local society.
On the other hand quite a number of these laborers have abused the social opportunities provided by the authority and searched ways of getting social welfare money (instead of working) in an unfair manner.
When we look at the situation with people from Russia, South Asia especially people from Vietnam, we see a totally different picture. The citizens of such countries have managed to adapt themselves to the new environment more quickly which in return has put them at the top of the preference list.
The Turkish governments unfortunately have not spent much effort to recover this situation (although they must have been well informed about it) so far, as if Turkey had nothing to do with this solemn issue. Thus, the governments are to blame really and not the people sent from the country straight, without being educated for such a big adventure, first.
As for the question “Is there any means to recover this situation, now”, the governments to come to power from now on should focus on this issue of education much more strongly and design new strategies to make sure Turkish citizens do get integrated into the society in EU countries (they work in) so that they can have the first preference again – as in the years when they first started coming to Germany.
Editor
BUSINESS TURKEY TODAY
