Mr Ali Kiresci

Research project: Are They Inside or Outside? Participation Experiences of Skilled Immigrant Cultural Workers in the UK's Artistic Labour Markets: The Case of Immigrant Musicians from Turkey.

Abstract

This study aims to present an analysis concerning the artistic labour market experiences of immigrant musicians from Turkey who have chosen to pursue a career in the UK. In the last two decades, the labour market experiences of minority groups have been subject to comprehensive empirical research. As one of the most critical facts of today's agenda, immigration has concurrently resulted in an increasing creative workforce, and major cities have been the main attraction of artistic activities. Despite the growing number of academic studies on the labour market integration of immigrants in the UK, a significant gap in the literature concerning immigrants who work in arts and their experiences in the artistic labour markets remains unexplored. Employing Bourdieu's theory of capital and labour market segmentation theory as the theoretical framework, this research will analyse the experiences of immigrant musicians from Turkey in London's cultural scene, exploring the barriers to successful inclusion and strategies for employment. Combining these two theories, this research aims to understand London's artistic labour market structure and immigrant musicians' labour market activities, skill-based competencies, and network-based relationships. A qualitative approach will be applied because of the complexity of the issues under investigation, and one-to-one semi-structured interviews will be employed to collect the necessary experience-based data. London, due to its status as a global hub for the arts, has been chosen as the case of the study since it has been a prominent centre of attraction for both native and international artists, as well as a host to many respected art organisations and institutions.