1970 sonrası işgücü piyasaları üzerindeki tartışmalar, yeniden yapılanma süreciyle birlikte işgücü piyasalarının yeniden şekillendiğini ve işgücü piyasası dinamiklerinin değiştiğini ortaya koymaktadır. Bu süreçteki uygulamalar, özellikle en riskli grupları (etnik gruplar,göçmenler, kadınlar vb.) olumsuz yönde etkilemekte ve sosyal ağları kullanan etnik işgücünün geçici işlerde enformel olarak kullanımlarını artırmaktadır.Bu çalışma son dönemde artan bu tartışmaların paralelinde, Cankurtaran ve Menzilahır mahallelerinde oturan çingene işgücünün enformel işlerde yoğunlaşması üzerine odaklanmıştır. Enformel işgücü piyasasına katılım biçimleri, bu süreçte etkili olan faktörler ve özellikle de işgücü piyasasının düzenlenmesinde mahallelerin rollerini ortaya koymayı amaçlamaktadır. Bu amaca yönelik olarak her iki mahalledeki çingene işgücü ile onları çalıştıran işyerlerinde anket ve detaylı görüşmeler yapılmıştır.Enformel işgücü piyasalarında talep edilen işlerle çingene işgücünün yapısal özelliklerinin örtüşmesi işin organize edilmesinde (simsarların kullanılması vb.) ve gerçekleştirilmesinde esnek ve farklı iş pratiklerini (esnek çalışma saatleri, takım olarak çalışma vb.) ortaya çıkarmaktadır. İş beklentisinin şekillenmesinde ve iş bulmada okulların değil, meydan ve kahvelerde gerçekleşen sosyalleşme süreçlerinin belirleyici olduğu görülmektedir. Ayrışmış konut alanlarında sosyal ağların yoğun kullanılması, enformel işlerdeki ayrışmayı artırmaktadır. Her iki mahallenin toplu taşımağlarına yakınlığı, niteliksiz düşük maliyetli konut alanlarına sahip olması ve merkeze ulaşılabilir bir mesafede bulunması, etnik grupların bu alanlarda mekansal olarak kümelenmelerini desteklemektedir. Etnik kümelenmelerin, iş olanaklarına ve ekonomik kaynaklara kolay erişimi ve enformel işe eleman alma ağlarına kolay katılımı sağladığı görülmektedir.

After 1970s, the theoretical discussions on labor market emphasizes the restructuring process by which labor markets have been reshaped and its dynamics have been changed especially together with decreasing formal employment opportunities and increasing flexibility in labor usage (BLUESTONE, HARRISON; 1982, aktaran MATTINGLY;1999, s.49). While flexibility for high skilled labor means increasing skills and responsibilities, flexibility for others means relocation of permanent labor with temporary ones. Responding to development in servis sector, besides an increase in high level specialized, high salaried and high educated jobs, there has been an increase in unspecialized, low skilled, low educated and low pay jobs. In addition, elimination of standardized manufacturing jobs leads to a decrease in middle level jobs that also increases polarization in employment. As a result of restructuring process, polarization and informal employment have increased in the labor markets. Especially, the new employment practices affect very risky groups (ethnic labor, immigrants, women etc.) negatively and have increased usage of ethnic labor for temporary jobs in informal labor markets. It has been observed that polarization in jobs has affected labor market organization and has leaded to two main tendecies in labor markets (SASSEN; 1995, s.11). First one is the weakening role of the firm in structuring the employment relation due to the fact that more is left to the market. A second tendency in this restructuring of the labor market is what could be described as the shift of labor market functions to the household or community. The second tendecy is most evident in the case of immigrant and ethnic communities. There is a large body of evidence showing that once or a few immigrant and ethnic workers are hired in a given workplace, they tend to bring in other members from their communities as job openings arise (PORTES;1995 aktaran SASSEN, 1997, S.12). There is also evidence showing great willingness on the part of immigrant and ethnic workers to help those they bring in with some training on the job, language instruction, and specialization into the job and workplace. This amounts to a displacement of traditional labor market functions such as recruitment, screening and training from the labor market and the firm to the community or household. The labor market can then be reconceived as an activity space that contains a space dependency between employers and the community/household. If the firms are informal, the job search by immigrants and ethnic labor entails stepping into networks that lead and confine them to informal labor markets. This research, parallel to increasing debates on this issue, focuses on concentration of Gypsy labor in Cankurtaran and Menzilahır for informal jobs. Working on such a frame aims at showing forms of labor participation to informal labor market, the effective factors in this process and especially the role of neighbourhoods on labor market regulation. To reach this aim, both Gypsy labor in Cankurtaran and Menzilahır and the firms where this labor have been working are interviewed. Overlapping of the structural features of Gypsy labor and jobs demanded in informal labor markets leads to flexible and different employment practices (flexible hours, team works etc.) in organization and realization of jobs. In shaping of demand for jobs and to find jobs, socialization processes which are not realized in schools but in squares of neighbourhoods and cafes have become determinant. Intensive usage of social networks in segregated housing areas has increased the segregation in informal jobs. Nearness of the neighbourhoods to main transportation networks, having low quality and low priced housing areas and location of the neigbourhoods at a accessable distance to the city centers have encouraged clustering of ethnic groups in the neigbourhoods. It has also been observed that ethnic clusters make easier to access job opportunities and economic resources, and to participate in informal networks for hiring labor.