Jannes Tessmann is a political scientist working on the governance of global industries. His research explores how states and private sector organizations regulate globally dispersed production networks and how these public and private forms of governance interact with each other. His regional focus is on West Africa, India, and Turkey. Throughout his academic career he has applied his research in various consulting activities for the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and for labor rights advocacy groups, such as the Clean Clothes Campaign Turkey.
Tessmann studied in Cologne and Istanbul, and has begun his PhD at the University of Cologne with a scholarship from the Hans-Böckler-Foundation. For his PhD, he has carried out fieldwork in Ivory Coast and India, where he was a visiting scholar at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University.
Project: “Multi-scalar Labor Governance in EU-Turkey Garment Value Chains: Challenges and Potentials for Workplace Integration of Refugees”
The Turkish garment industry has become a major source of income for Syrian refugees. It is estimated that up to 400,000 Syrians are currently working in Turkish garment factories, with more than 90 percent being informally employed. This has significant social and economic implications for Turkey and EU-Turkish relations. Apart from imperatives to improve working conditions for refugee workers, Turkish policy makers have to address fears among Turkish citizens that the influx of Syrians into Turkish labor markets has led to job scarcity and downward pressure on wages. Furthermore, EU-based garment brands have come under pressure to ensure that refugees are not exploited in Turkey, which represents the third largest manufacturer of apparel for the EU.
Against this background, this project seeks to determine how legal employment opportunities for refugee workers can be improved in a collaborative effort between EU-based apparel brands, Turkish industry representatives, and policy makers. In order to find sustainable solutions, interviews with industry representatives and policy makers center around two primary questions: What are the challenges and potentials for formal workplace integration of refugees in Turkey-EU garment value chains? How can regulatory reforms promote the formal integration of refugee workers into the Turkish garment industry?
Syrian Textile Workers Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case for Closer Cooperation between Turkey and the EU
2018/19 Mercator-IPC Fellow Jannes Tessmann’s policy brief “Syrian Textile Workers Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case for Closer Cooperation between Turkey and the EU” was published in June 2020.
Click here to download the document.
Welcoming of the 2018/19 Mercator-IPC Fellows
We welcome our 2018/19 Mercator-IPC Fellows, Cem İskender Aydın, Annegret Warth, Jannes Tessmann, Ender Peker, Maissam Nimer, Yohanan Benhaim, and Joanna Krzeminska.
Cem İskender Aydın | Assessing Multi-level Governance Using Participatory Multi-criteria Evaluation Frameworks: The Case of Windfarm Conflicts in Turkey
Annegret Warth | Municipalities as Actors of Youth Exchange?! An Exemplary Case Analysis of Youth Work and Local Governance Structures in Turkey
Jannes Tessmann | Multi-scalar Labor Governance in EU-Turkey Garment Value Chains: Challenges and Potentials for Workplace Integration of Refugees
Ender Peker | Producing Actionable Knowledge to Achieve Climate Responsive Urban Development in Turkey
Maissam Nimer | Access of Syrian Refugee Adults to Language Instruction
Yohanan Benhaim | Turkish Business People and the War in Iraq: Impacts and Prospects in Trade and Construction Sectors
Joanna Krzeminska | Refugees and Elementary School in Istanbul - Inclusion of Young Refugees through Cultural Education
European Union-Turkey Relations Roundtable Meeting
IPC and the Initiative's ''European Union-Turkey Relations Roundtable Meeting'' with German parliamentarians took place with the participation of Fuat Keyman, Anne Duncker, Jannes Tessman, Atila Eralp, Özcan Mutlu and Ebru Voyvoda at IPC on October 6.
Welcoming of the 2021/22 Mercator-IPC Fellows
The Welcoming of the 2021/22 Mercator-IPC Fellows was held on October 11 at Barbare Vineyard House. The event began with welcoming remarks by IPC Director Fuat Keyman and Stiftung Mercator Director Michael Schwarz. The event continued with a movie screening that introduced the 2021/22 Mercator-IPC Fellows Anna Zadrożna, Arzu Karakulak, Ezgi Ediboğlu, Onur Sazak, Sibel Karadağ and Theocharis Grigoriadis.
Pleace click here for the event.
The Welcoming of the 2020/21 Mercator-IPC Fellows
The Welcoming of the 2020/21 Mercator-IPC Fellows was held on October 19 at The Seed. The event began with welcoming remarks by Yusuf Leblebici, followed by remarks from Fuat Keyman and Michael Schwarz. The event continued with a speech by Mercator-IPC Visiting Senior Fellow Pankaj Mishra and a Q&A section moderated by Senior Scholar Senem Aydın-Düzgit. The speech was followed by a movie screening that introduced the 2020/21 Mercator-IPC Fellows Ahmet Atıl Aşıcı, David Samuel Williams, Elena Dück, Jan Schierkolk, Karolína Augustová, Michael Kaeding, and Özge Geyik.
Please click here to watch the broadcast.
Please click here to watch the speech by Mercator-IPC Visiting Senior Fellow Pankaj Mishra and a Q&A section moderated by Senior Fellow Senem Aydın-Düzgit.
Exploring the Dimensions of Refugee Inclusion: Social Structures, Institutions and Strategies Conference
2018/19 Mercator-IPC Fellows Maissam Nimer and Jannes Tessmann convened an international conference on “Exploring the Dimensions of Refugee Inclusion” on November 28-29, 2019 at the Consulate General of the Netherlands, Istanbul.
The first keynote speech of the conference “Shifting the Gaze: Beyond Inclusion and Social Cohesion toward Refugee-Refugee Relationality” was given by Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh from University College London on November 28 at the Consulate-General of the Netherlands. The second keynote speech of the conference “Rethinking ‘Inclusion’: Coloniality, Patriarchy and the Administrator’s Gaze in ‘Refugee Inclusion’ Projects” was given by Prem Kumar Rajaram from Central European University on November 29, 2019 at the Consulate-General of the Netherlands.
Welcoming of the 2018/19 Mercator-IPC Fellows
The Welcoming of the 2018/19 Mercator-IPC Fellows was held on October 8, 2018 at Salon IKSV. The event marked the seventh cycle of the Mercator-IPC Fellowship Program of the IPC-Sabancı University-Stiftung Mercator Initiative.
The event began with welcoming remarks by Director Fuat Keyman, followed by remarks from the Chairman of the Advisory Board at Stiftung Mercator, Rüdiger Frohn. The welcoming remarks were followed by a movie screening that introduced 2018/19 Mercator-IPC Senior Fellows Atila Eralp and Özcan Mutlu and the 2018/19 Mercator-IPC Fellows Annegret Warth, Cem İskender Aydın, Ender Peker, Jannes Tessmann, Joanna Krzeminska, Maissam Nimer, and Yohanan Benhaim.
