Essential but Exploitable: Migrant Agri-Food Workers in Italy and Spain

The Covid-19 pandemic crisis has shown that migrant workers are essential for the agri-food system, especially in Spain and Italy. The development of fruit and vegetable production in both countries has importantly relied on migrant labour due to integration in verticalized value chains and competition in neoliberal globalization. Migration and asylum policies as well as mobility policies and recruitment mechanisms have made labour differentiated, precarious, cheap, flexible and constantly renewed to match the specific demand in the sector. In both countries, the national governments have promoted different interventions to address labour exploitation, migrant workers’ vulnerabilities, and also labour shortage risks, following internal socio-political confrontation and pressures from different actors. Having pointed out the interplay of dynamics and mechanisms causing labour exploitation in the agri-food system, this contribution will analyse the political interventions in the two countries showing how they shape specific migration and labour regimes.