Conclusion

Abstract

Work, Migrants and Social Integration began with two central questions: what is the nature of women’s work in the Turkish ethnic economy in Britain and how has women’s role in the ethnic economy facilitated their social integration into mainstream society? The increasing dominance of ethnically based fast-food catering businesses has contributed to making women’s work highly invisible. Therefore, my aim has been to show the role of women in the ethnic economy, in order to indicate women’s contributions not only as unpaid or low paid workers but also in terms of their domestic roles, which have enabled the maintenance of ethnic and social ties and networks that the ethnic economy heavily relies on. By focusing on the interrelations between ethnicity, gender and work, this book has shown that the Turkish community paved its integration path into the British society by keeping the home culture intact and establishing the Turkish ethnic economy and traditional gendered roles in which women were burdened with the roles of motherhood and wifehood.