Migrant Women Negotiating Difference, Borders and Work: Turkish, Kurdish Women in Hackney, 1980 to 2018

This research examines the economic, social and political contributions of Turkish and Kurdish (T/K) womenin the London borough of Hackney, through an analysis of their subjective experiences and the changingsocial and geo-political terrain of the borough since 1980. Using a combination of oral history, photographyelicitation and archival sources, the study focuses on T/K women's everyday life practices and asks severalrelated questions: What personal resources did these women bring from Turkey? What did the geographicspace of Hackney offer them? How were their subjectivities shaped through the collision of culture, spaceand place? How did these women shape the geographical space they went on to inhabit? The thesis willmake an important contribution to existing debates and also fill a gap in the contemporary cultural studiesresearch on work, gender, migration and gentrification in London through its focus on a hitherto unstudiedgroup.The study's timeframe - 1980-2018 - marks both an expansion of the T/K communities in Hackney and aperiod of rapid socio-economic change in the borough. Based on my knowledge of these communities andmy preliminary research, I have divided this period into three: 1. Arrival of T/K women in the UK and theirinitial employment in textile factories (1980-1994); 2. The closure of textile factories and opening of smallfamily-run businesses and the beginning of extensive regeneration programmes (1995-2004); 3. Re-shapingand re-defining gendered and ethnic geographical and social boundaries as Hackney becomes increasinglygentrified (2005 onwards).The research is located within a theoretical framework of cultural and migration studies and feminist andintersectional approaches. It places migrant women's experiences in the centre of the study to producenew knowledge about identity, politics of difference and displacement. This knowledge can be used bywide-ranging stakeholders and will contribute to production of representational knowledge.