Seasonal Agricultural Migration

Education

Children who are affected by seasonal agricultural migration and migratory agricultural work often do not have the benefit of a favourable educational environment in their places of residence. Their educational environments may be rife with challenges and problems, and they may already be at high risk of dropping out. Seasonal agricultural migration is in most cases “the last straw” for these children which may cause them to drop out of school altogether (Development Workshop, 2012). Seasonal agricultural work affects prevents those children who migrate along with family members who are employed as migratory workers from attending school regularly. Long periods of absenteeism may lead to the child dropping out of education entirely.

They set on the seasonal migration route from Şanlıurfa, Viranşehir with his extended family of 22. Murat cannot attend school properly because they leave Şanlıurfa every year in May. He said that “We have again set on the migration route. First we will hoe sugar beet in Aksaray, then go to vegetable harvest in Samsun. Then, we will head to Düzce for picking nuts. After Düzce, I won’t go to the cotton harvest with my family but continue school”. In contrast, during their journey, it was witnessed that instead of going back for school, he went to the cotton harvest close to Viranşehir with his family. Murat’s sister who also doesn’t attend school is another example of children who are not being able to attend school. She said that “I went to 7th grade but because we have to set on the road for work, I had to leave school. We used to go to school for 4 months, we had to work for 6. When you only attend school for 4 months, you cannot learn anything except to read and write; nothing else”. Therefore the high prevalence of school dropout rates among seasonal agricultural workers can be attributed to the demands of the seasonal agricultural labor schedule. Child workers and children that attend the seasonal labor migration with their families lack education opportunities forcing them to continue their lives without any kind of security. Survey results indicate that while children especially at younger

Consequently, these health problems may prevent the child from participating effectively in learning processes and may increase her/his risk of dropping out. Malnutrition, exposure to agricultural chemicals, and high levels of stress experienced during seasonal agricultural migration and work pose particular risks to the child’s nervous system and hence her/his cognitive development and her/his participation in educational processes.

Given the importance of peer impact and role models in educational attainment, the experience of seasonal agricultural migration can lead to the child developing a feeling of hopelessness in the future which may lead to lower expectations from education and consequently increase the risk of the child dropping out of school (Özbek, 2007). 14 year old girl worker from Şanluurfa expresses this hopeless in these words; “I left school in the second term because I would have to leave anyway, so I said this is enough.” Well, our job is with cotton. Yours is with pen, ours is cotton.” (Support to Life,