Final Summary Report: Study on Urban Child Labour in Istanbul (Türkiye, 2026)

This report examines the evolving dynamics of urban child labour and school dropout in Istanbul, with a particular focus on how household vulnerability, education-system constraints, and informal labour markets interact to push children out of education and into work. It responds to growing evidence that child labour in Türkiye’s urban, adolescent-focused, and embedded in informal production and services, and that recent shocks, including COVID-19, post-2020 economic challenges and inflation, and the displacement impacts following the February 2023 earthquakes, and coping strategies among low-income and displaced households.