Fashion and its Refugees: production, consumption and subjectivity in the age of neoliberal authoritarianism

This paper aims to explore the relationship between migration and refugee movements and the production and consumption of fashion, with the emphasis on the plight of Syrian refugee workers in Turkish garment factories. A recent report published by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre indicates that ‘exploitation of refugees in the supply chains that produce clothes for Europe’s high streets appears endemic’ and ‘the plight of Syrian refugees in Turkey has unfortunately exposed the most damaging market forces at work in the global garment industry: vulnerable refugees fall victim to the drive for lower prices and increased margins’. A theoretical background to the fieldwork I will conduct in Istanbul, this paper will discuss a) how neo-liberal discourses of charity, compassion and employability simultaneously obscure and reinforce the increasing degradation of work as well as the physical and discursive violence endured by refugee workers, and b) how the forced migration/displacement and the rapid and enforced acquisition of skills necessary to produce apparel transform the worker’s personal experience, perception and memory of the fashion commodity as well as its production and consumption. Drawing on theories of work, poverty, leisure, memory and affect, I also aim to understand the survival and resistance strategies and tactics used by refugee workers inside and outside the work place. In this way, this paper is intended to contribute to a framework for addressing fashion production/consumption, migration/refugee movements and the subjectivity of the worker as interconnected phenomena.

Delice contributed this invited paper to the "Fashion & Politics: Historical & Contemporary Perspectives" conference organised by the the LCF Transnational Fashion Research Hub on 7 July 2017.