Exploitative solidarity: Informal employment and the paradox of kinship among Turkish Migrants in the UK

Abstract

This qualitative study advances the concept of exploitative solidarity to explain how co-ethnic support networks can reproduce labour exploitation among Turkish-speaking immigrants in the United Kingdom. Based on in-depth interviews with 15 migrants in London and Leicester, the analysis demonstrates how kinship and compatriot ties that facilitate entry into employment frequently evolve into asymmetrical labour arrangements marked by excessive working hours, unpaid labour and the absence of contractual protection within enclave businesses. Contrary to assumptions that strong ties foster mobility, relational proximity often consolidates informational asymmetries and dependency, particularly where limited English proficiency restricts access to alternative networks. Within the present sample, gender mediated these dynamics, as men more frequently converted linguistic and occupational capital into exit pathways, while women’s incorporation remained structured through marital and kinship dependency. By theorising how solidarity becomes a vehicle of constraint within bounded ethnic labour markets, the study contributes to debates on migrant incorporation, informal employment and relational precarity in advanced economies.