ABSTRACT
This chapter details the shifts in the social and urban landscape as well as the scaling up of the local economy to the domestic market. It dwells upon the cultural mechanisms through which economic accumulation through illegal means could be socially accepted as wealth. The chapter argues by drawing on the community norms and values, including ethical principles and religious references that regulate and normalize illegal practices of trade. The meaning of smuggling in Kilis town does not originate in the transgression of law but it stems from its organization at the community level. As the case of Kilis suggests, contrary to the public convictions that the neoliberal regime promotes corruption by undermining moral values, economic accumulation through illegal means is a morally laden realm regulated by ethical principles and rules of conduct. They discuss the ways that patronage and kinship ease the participation of the poor in illegal cross-border trade.
