hey,
I'm Canadian and I'm planning on living in Turkey for awhile when I graduate from high school. What is the best way to go about this? Is it dangerous for a young female to live there alone? Is it hard to get a job/ accomadation with just a high-school diploma? etc...
thanks for the help

it would depend on what part of turkey you move to.
if you move to the north or east the culture is very different and it may be hard to adjust to.. if you move to istanbul or south turkey its more western so you would find it much easier to get on there.

is it dangerous for a young girl though? And how is it getting a job with only a high school diploma?

Hi jwallace,

There is too much unemployment in Turkia. Even people with university degrees can not easily find a good job and if they do, sallaries are extremely low in Turkia. Other than that many things are extremely expensive as well.

The average sallary in Turkia is the lowest comparing to EU countries.

Electricity, oil, phone charges and internet connection is the most expensive of the World in Turkia. I don't think there is a country that can beat us on these but even if there is we are among the top.

Other than that cars and electronical items are very expensive as well. A car is considered a luxury.

For a simple home computer you would have to save money for six months. It is simillar with kitchen appliances. Any big item such as a fridge, washing machine, or oven will costs as much as a month's income of a person that is in a position as you describe.

Of course you can not give your whole sallary away to buy something like a fridge. You must save for it for many months. Say, you are saving a quarter of your low sallary, which is extremely difficult, then you will buy a fridge in 4 months. Assuming you want to buy a fridge, a washing machine and an oven. You should be expecting to live like a plant for at least a year.

Anything that comes from abroad will be very expensive. Branded clothes and any branded items are first to mention. In a low level income people can not easiliy have a dinner outside. I'm not talking about fancy restourants but about the corner fast food shop. Sitting in a cafe and drinking a tea is luxury. Eating a sandvich outside is a luxury. McDonalds etc. will be not a place to eat. It will be too expensive for you.

With the quarter of your sallary that you saved you can only buy a pair of branded trainers. As a result you won't buy them.

In certain ages, for instance between 16-19, teenagers feel like their looks is very important and they want to wear nice things. Parents of average income will not easily buy a pair of branded trainers for their kids. But the problem is that, others, who have more money, will do and the kids will feel second class at school. Therefore many parents are spending lots of money for their children to prevent them to feel second class and of course they can not buy most of the things they would like to.

Since any type of meat is extremely expensive there are people who can not afford to buy meat for months. Even buying a kg beef is a luxury that you can not afford on a low level income. If a factory worker, or an ordinary office worker (with a high school diploma) would take home a kg of beef the family would be happy not only for a day but for a whole week and they would consume it very carefully.

On a low level income you don't take your children to the supermarket because they will want things that you can not afford e.g. a chocolate.

When I first started working as a teacher I was send to a small village in South-East Turkia (Güneydoğu'da bir köyde başladım öğretmenliğe). I went there with the local bus together with the villagers and when I arrived a few children came and they helped me carrying my items.

Afterterwards, the children and I were having a chat and resting a bit. It was a very hot summer day. We were in front of my new one room flat that was next to the one room school building.

I unpacked a few boxes. I had brought some food with me. I started preparing sandviches for them. One of the children was surprised. He said, "What is this?" and I told him it was a sausage. He was a ten year old boy and he had not eaten sausage in his life.

This was ten years ago. I was 24 at the time. I still remember it like yesterday. It was a difficult year for me. For six months of the year the weather was unbearably hot and whenever some officials arrived in the village to check the school I had to weat a suit jacket. I only had a thick one for winter. As a teacher I couldn't afford buying a summer jacket in my first year.

That year I started learning English and hoped that it would help me for a better life. Life is very tough in Turkia, jwallace.

thank you very much for the information. English is my native language, will that help to gain a better quality of life? also, if I bring a couple thousand canadian dollars with me, would that be useful? I don't have a family, and I will bring clothes and stuff with me, I will only need to live on the bare minimum...could I get a minimum wage job? willl life still be as difficult as you described?

Yes, it will. English can help you finding a job but it will take too much time and without a university degree the job won't be that good. If you had a university degree maybe you could get an English teaching certificate and that would help.

Because you are desperate for a job employers will try to use this. Since you don't have any experience and since you don't know how to handle situations at the beginning you will experience lots of harrasment. Some employers might come with some unethical offerings and even if you would try to report them you would just see the authorities lauging at you.

Human rights organisations in Turkia are only interested to support terrorists who have killed officials or innocent people. None of them will have ever heard anything about sexual harrasment at workplace.

Your couple of thousand Canadian dollars will vanish in a month or two and you will still not have found a job. Afterwards you are on your own. Even for Turkish people there is no income support or what-so-ever if you don't earn any money. It is only you and God that can help you.

You could get a minimum wage job but I think you don't know what it is like. You would have to think a few times before you buy a coke. I don't think you would survive.

There is one other option you could look at....

Why not apply for a job for a Canadian/English/American company who have a base in Turkey (such as a holiday company). You'll find you probably work hard shifts and get paid the minimum wage but you would probably have all the employment protection as if you were working in Canada.

If I took this option I'd want to make sure the company was doing good for Turkey (e.g. making the country money or bringing in tourism) as I wouldn't want to feel like I was taking from them.

My sister lived in Marmaris for 3 months and managed to find a resort apartment to live in which was fairly cheap (approx £250 per month). She bought food from supermarkets as oppose to eating out and spent her money sensibly. She idd fine and loved her time out there!

My final bit of advice would be to save as much money as you can in Canada and use it as a 'desperate fund'. Only dip into it if you really need to and make sure you have enough money for a ticket home should you need it (tickets to London are as cheap as £5.

Laura

But that was 10 years ago Erdinç.. I think even Turkia is progressing... Especially now that they want to join the EU, they have to change a lot before they'll be allowed, because else the whole country will run empty before you know it!

I was talking to someone from our hostel, and he was working 7 nights a week (from 4 - 11), and he got 600YTL a month (300 euros..). I don't think that's too bad, because he didn't do anything at all! He was just sitting behind his desk, chatting a bit with the guests, and sometimes checking people in! But maybe there's a difference in where you're living as well. You could try to live in Istanbul, and get a job in one of the shops in Taksim . Most of them are brands from all over the world, so they'll probably give you a 'reasonable' salary...

thank you very much for the info.
I was thinking about moving to istanbul as opposed to any other city. Do most people there speak english? I know it would probably be a good idea to learn turkish...I won't be living luxuriously or anything, and I will only be staying for a couple months, so I won't need a really permanent job. But i hope I can have decent life style with my savings and working.

Hi ya
Sometimes in life you have to throw yourself in at the "deep" end & i guess it will be 'sink or swim'
But is is much better to try & fail then to live with the regret of "i wished..........."

Just make sure you have an open ticket or enough money to buy 1 .... just in case it all goes belly up...........otherwise have a great time