Research and Policy on Turkey, vol.3, no.2, pp.115-137, 2018 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
This paper examines the dynamics of care arrangements for children,
persons with disabilities (PWD), and the elderly, who constitute
the group of ‘the invisible’ in social policy in Turkey. The
invisibility of these three groups stems from their systematic,
consistent and diffuse exclusion from the social, political and
economic life of the country. The context of social inclusion policies
for these groups in Turkey presents a challenge to assess their
implications in three important respects: (I) the lack of data concerning
these groups, (II) the lack of policy tools and instruments
assessing the existing assistance and services for these groups, to
allow comparative evaluations, and (III) general orientation of care
services and policies towards families, therefore not targeting the
direct correspondents of these policies. This paper outlines existing
care policies for children, PWD and the elderly in Turkey, with a
view to assessing their implications for promoting social inclusion,
in two different aspects. While social inclusion literature is predominantly
focused on the implication of social policies for the carereceivers,
this paper examines the social inclusion implications of
care policies also for those who are traditionally assigned the role
of caregiver, namely, women. The latter dimension is a consequence
of the increasing familialization of care policies in Turkey,
which leads to the exclusion of women from economic and social
life, thus reproducing the invisibility of these three groups while
sustaining an overarching invisibility, that of women.