Gökçe Uysal is an economist who works on labor markets, education, and private savings, with a special focus on Turkey. Her work on the labor market has focused on disadvantaged groups, such as women, youth, and refugees. Recently, she has carried out research on Syrians in the labor market in Turkey and how their access can be facilitated. She has also worked on education as it relates to the labor market and household savings in Turkey. Her articles have appeared in the Journal of Economic Growth, Social Indicators Research, and the International Journal of Educational Development.
Uysal holds a PhD and an MA from the University of Rochester. She received her BA from Galatasaray University. She is based at the Faculty of Economic, Administrative and Social Sciences at Bahçeşehir University and at the Bahçeşehir University Economic and Social Research Center, Betam.
Project: “Refugees’ Integration into the Labor Market: What Can Turkey and Germany Learn from Each Other?”
Since the beginning of the conflict in Syria, 5.6 million Syrians have fled from their homes. Many of them stayed in neighboring countries, and some traveled to Europe. Currently, refugees’ labor market integration presents unique challenges as refugees are likely to lack the necessary documentation, and they are less likely to speak the host country’s language, a skill crucial in achieving both social and economic integration. Therefore, finding employment, particularly formal employment, is challenging. This renders refugees more susceptible to poverty and to social exclusion, given that a large majority of refugees need to work to sustain their livelihoods.
Given that there are almost four million Syrians in Turkey and about one million Syrians in Germany, the primary goal of this project is to investigate the effects of forced migration on labor market integration. Providing a thorough analysis of Germany’s past experience with both voluntary and forced migration, this project aims to identify policies that worked and policies that failed. In a second step, the labor market discrimination that migrant workers face in Turkey and in Germany will be investigated using a novel data set.
Pandemic, Climate, Society
As Istanbul Policy Center, from the beginning of 2020, when the COVID-19 epidemic began, we organized numerous panels on the web, where the situation of the world, societies, and individuals under the epidemic conditions was evaluated. We would like to share our book titled 'Pandemic, Climate, Society' prepared from these panels: We discussed the economic and social effects of the epidemic in the world, especially in the European Union and Turkey, starting from the very first days. Most participants think that there is a lot we can learn from this experience and that we need to mobilize this experience towards a just world order to cope with future epidemics and ecological crises. We are publishing this book at a point where we leave the epidemic behind with the discovery and application of the vaccine. For us, the great success of the last two years belongs to science, doctors, health workers, and scientists around the world. We would like to thank our listeners who followed our panels and guided our work with their suggestions and all our speakers who contributed, especially Ayşe Köse Badur and Semih Sökmen, who prepared this work for publication.
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Gender Inequality in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Who did the housework? Who took care of the children?
2019/20 Mercator-IPC Fellow Gökçe Uysal, Istanbul Technical University Faculty Member Aysun Hızıroğlu Aygün and Bocconi University PHD student and researcher Selin Köksal's policy brief "Gender Inequality in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Who did the housework? Who took care of the children? (COVID-19 Pandemisinde Toplumsal Cinsiyet Eşitsizliği: Ev İşlerini Kim Yaptı? Çocuklara Kim Baktı?)" was published in March 2021.
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How Should We Track the Collapse in the Labor Market Caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic?
2019/20 Mercator-IPC Fellow Gökçe Uysal and BETAM Research Assistants Hamza Mutluay and Mehmet Cem Şahin’s policy brief “How Should We Track the Collapse in the Labor Market Caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic? (COVID-19 Pandemisinin İşgücü Piyasasında Yarattığı Tahribat Nasıl Takip Edilmeli?)” was published in June 2020.
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Syrian Workers and Informality in the Textile Sector in Istanbul
2019/20 Mercator-IPC Fellow Gökçe Uysal and independent researcher Engin Volkan’s policy brief “Syrian Workers and Informality in the Textile Sector in Istanbul” was published in May 2020.
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Covid19 Pandemic and Protecting the Households in Turkey
2019/20 Mercator-IPC Fellow Gökçe Uysal’s policy brief “Covid19 Pandemic and Protecting the Households in Turkey (Covid19 Pandemisi ve Türkiye'de Hanelerin Korunması)” was published in April 2020.
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"Nasıl bir Dünya? Nasıl bir Türkiye?" with Gökçe Uysal ve Menekşe Tokyay
Pandemide Toplumsal Cinsiyet Eşitliği ve Kırılgan Gruplar
“Nasıl bir Dünya? Nasıl bir Türkiye?” with Fuat Keyman, Senem Aydın-Düzgit, Ümit Şahin, Fikret Adaman, Atila Eralp, Ayşe Köse Badur, Gökçe Uysal and Ahmet Atıl Aşıcı
2020'de Ne Yaptık? 2021'den Ne Bekliyoruz?
"Nasıl bir Dünya? Nasıl bir Türkiye" with Kamil Yılmaz and Gökçe Uysal
Koronavirüs Salgını Döneminde Ekonomi ve İşgücü
Welcoming of the 2019/20 Mercator-IPC Fellows
We welcome our 2019/20 Mercator-IPC Fellows, Andrea Weiss, Sinan Erensü, Ellen Kollender, Akgün İlhan, and Gökçe Uysal.
Andrea Weiss | Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railroad: Geopolitical Imagery and Turkey’s Role in the EU’s Europe-Asia Connectivity
Sinan Erensü | When Locals Generate: Limits and Potentials of Energy Cooperatives for a Democratic Energy Transition
Ellen Kollender | Voices of Civil Society Actors on Inclusive Education in Times of Forced Migration: Case Studies in Germany and Turkey
Akgün İlhan | Tracing Possibilities of Urban Water Demand Management in the Climate Change Age in Turkey: Deriving Lessons from Istanbul and Berlin
Gökçe Uysal | Refugees’ Integration into the Labor Market: What Can Turkey and Germany Learn from Each Other?
Salgın ve Toplum - "Hayat Pahalılığı, İşsizlik, Sosyal Güvenlik"
IPC organized the webinar Salgın ve Toplum - "Hayat Pahalılığı, İşsizlik, Sosyal Güvenlik" with the participation of Senem Aydın-Düzgit, Alpay Filiztekin, İnsan Tunalı and Gökçe Uysal on February 23.
Please click here for the event.
“Nasıl bir Dünya? Nasıl bir Türkiye?” with Fuat Keyman, Senem Aydın-Düzgit, Ümit Şahin, Fikret Adaman, Atila Eralp, Ayşe Köse Badur, Gökçe Uysal and Ahmet Atıl Aşıcı
Fuat Keyman, Senem Aydın-Düzgit, Ümit Şahin, Fikret Adaman, Atila Eralp, Ayşe Köse Badur, Gökçe Uysal and Ahmet Atıl Aşıcı were hosted by Pelin Oğuz at the 42nd episode of “Nasıl bir Dünya? Nasıl bir Türkiye?” program titled "2020'de Ne Yaptık? 2021'den Ne Bekliyoruz?" organized by the IPC-Sabancı University-Stiftung Mercator Initiative in cooperation with Medyascope.
Please click here for the event.
"Nasıl bir Dünya? Nasıl bir Türkiye" with Kamil Yılmaz and Gökçe Uysal
Kamil Yılmaz and Gökçe Uysal were hosted by Murat Aksoy at the 11th episode of “Nasıl bir Dünya? Nasıl bir Türkiye?” program titled "Koronavirüs Salgını Döneminde Ekonomi ve İşgücü" organized by the IPC-Sabancı University-Stiftung Mercator Initiative in cooperation with Medyascope.
Please click here for the event.
The Welcoming of the 2019/20 Mercator-IPC Fellows
The Welcoming of the 2019/20 Mercator-IPC Fellows was held on October 21, 2019 at Soho Istanbul. The event began with welcoming remarks by Fuat Keyman, followed by remarks from Michael Schwarz, Senem Aydın-Düzgit, Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, Atila Eralp, and Michael Thumann. The welcoming remarks were followed by a movie screening that introduced the 2019/20 Mercator-IPC Fellows Akgün İlhan, Andrea Weiss, Ellen Kollender, Gökçe Uysal, and Sinan Erensü.
