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Roma Agricultural Laborers From Perspective of Mrs Kadriye

We visited Mrs. Kadriye’s house while “cingeneyiz.org” team was working on “Gypsies of Kuştepe Oral History” study. She gave both current and historical information about Gypsies who work as agricultural laborer in Aegean region.

Mrs. Kadriye who was born in Balıkesir cited that they continued to keep in touch with their relatives in village although they moved to İstanbul 20 years ago. As Mrs. Kadriye said, she was also an agricultural laborer and she worked very hard with very little money, especially in summertime. She pointed out that her relatives still continue to work on fields. She explained that they work as collectors in the fields and said “… We worked under very heavy conditions. We earned only chickenfeed. Nowadays, a bale of straw is packed for 350 kurus(penny). Imagine how much money can be earned when 3 or 4 people pack 200 bale of straw, at maximum…”

Her eyes were full with ears when she explained that most of Gypsies live under similar conditions. According to her, what they experienced were not only trouble, but extreme poverty and misery. She cited that many children pass away because of stinging of centipedes since families have no place for children to leave and they are bound to take children along with them while they are going to fields. Moreover she emphasized that the easier works are made by habitants while the relatively difficult and dangerous ones are made by them(Gypsies) What saddens her most is the idea that they did not receive a concrete payment for their labor in the long years in farming.