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i am an expert on this subject.
If someone works in the tourist industry in the summer, usually they can find jobs, often they go back to the same job every year, even if the employers are absolute bastards because better the devil you know!
In the winter if you are lucky and have the right contacts, you can get a job in a winter season area, like Bursa for example where they have skiing.
Usually the boys return home to their parents. Their summer wages will be saved throughout the summer and this will keep the whole family for the winter. Not always, if there are lots of boys in the family and they all have summer jobs, then they can be better off. This is why turkish boys never have any money, because they survive on their tips. they don't need to buy food because they eat in their hotels.
See my essay on the Turkish tourist industry, for many information.
The bosses are supposed to pay insurance for them so if they get ill they can go to the doctors or hospital, this rarely happens, but no one complains because they will lose their jobs permanently and they are afraid of this happening. So they hope they wont get ill, or if they do they can survive without medical treatment, or they have to use some of their money from the summer wages to pay. it is much worse if there are only 1 or 2 boys in the family and they have elderly parents who might need medical treatement. Even when there is money they are afraid to use it in case of emergency.
A lot of the reasons turkish boys are so tied to their families (as we see in the posts) is because they are the only ones able bodied enough to support their families. it is another reason why they want children quickly, because the more children there are, the most security there is for the future, because when the children start work, at an early age in poor families, the children also contribute to the family economy.
There is a kind of social security called I think a 'green card' it gives food and help with medical expenses, but it has its 'downside' to qualifiy I think you have to have paid tax (most tourist industry boys do not pay tax) and they can't claim it. There are other more complicated reasons why it is not always a good plan to claim the assistance, but I can't remember what they are.
If boys work in the tourist industry they are pretty much condemned to work away from home for most of, or all of the year. it is one reason (in my view) why they fall in love so quickly, they are, variously lonely for female company, they miss their mothers, their sisters their aunts and they never get any sex from turkish girls (they probably never even see any turkish girls for most of the year - certainly not unattached girls. Again read my essag 'sad love story' it is typical of the way a boy from a poor family will think.
It is a very very hard life and i don't think anyone should underestimate this, or why they love the tourists so much.
Young people who are educated to university standard have a much better chance, but generally they are from richer families. This is because poor families can't afford for their kids to go to university because they need them to start work as soon as they are old enough. It is not unusual for 16 year olds to leave home, travel hundreds of miles away alone and start working 16/18 hours per day for the whole season.
I think this is also one of the reasons, the 'male culture' predominates still. Older boys will take the young ones 'under their wing' and they all look after each other, even if they haven't known each other for very long. It is actually a very wonderful aspect of Turkish culture I think, the way they look after and care for each other. they rely heavily on the companionship of their friends or 'brothers' becuase they are all away from their families and loved ones. i could write for hours about these subjects..............
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