What about the formal workers? Informality in formal employment and social protection gaps in developing countries during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic created a perfect testing ground for investigating social protection systems worldwide. In an effort to explore social protection responses to the pandemic, the literature suggests that the main challenge in developing countries is to reach out to the informally employed as the formally employed are assumed to enjoy adequate protection. However, this conclusion conveys only a partial picture of social protection gaps. Based on a qualitative study with formal workers in Istanbul, this chapter shows that social protection schemes fail to perform their intended function because of long-standing informal practices that are embedded in formal employment relations. It also illustrates the multi-layered power dynamics formal workers encounter when they want to access their social insurance entitlements. This chapter proposes a new framework of hybridity to study the interplay between de jure social security entitlements and de facto enjoyment of the right to social security for formal workers.