This article sheds light on the interrelationship of seasonal migration, subsistence production and peasant relations in a community (Sakli) located in Turkey's northwestern countryside. Most studies argue that rural outmigration is either an adaptation to persistent unemployment or a phenomenon resulting from pressures and counterpressures in the social relations of production. These approaches tend to overlook the specific features of rural culture and power in determining conditions for seasonal migration and its effects on social relations. While migrant labor is understood by local villagers as forming part of a continual battle to preserve local tradition and kinship ties, this article shows how it reduces the dominion of landlords while creating internal household differentiation and gendered hierarchies. -Author

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Migrant Workers residential mobility economics population peasant agriculture demography social relations developing country gender discrimination peasant relations Population Dynamics social relation subsistence production Developing Countries Family And Household sex difference seasonal migration Asia rural culture Migration, Internal rural population Sakli Turkey (republic) Western Asia Asia, Western Mediterranean Countries Seasons family size Family Characteristics Temporary Migration season health care manpower labor migration Health Manpower household structure seasonal variation Article migration Sex Factors Turkey population and population related phenomena Demographic Factors Emigration and Immigration Economic Factors Households Transients and Migrants Population Characteristics Human Resources class structure Macroeconomic Factors employment Labor Force Production