Pandemic to deportations: Sub-Saharan African migrant labor in seasonal tea agriculture and the transformation of precarity

This article examines how migrant agency and state governance co-constitute one another through Sub-Saharan African labor in Turkey's Eastern Black Sea tea sector (2020–2025). Drawing on longitudinal ethnography, it shows how pandemic-driven labor substitution initially produced hyper-precarity, yet migrants expanded their bargaining power through networks and disintermediation. With the rise of economic crisis and anti-immigrant rhetoric, the state's approach shifted from tolerance to control; however, as migrants became essential and labor shortages deepened, governance turned toward work-permit exemptions. The study conceptualizes precarity as dynamic, highlights rurality as a strategic refuge, and frames agency and governance as mutually shaping.