Map: Seasonal workers inside the globalization gears
Résumé
This map shows the financial flows and the circulation of workers and goods generated by areas of agricultural production that need a large workforce (fruits and vegetables in greenhouses, citrus for exportation). An increasing competition between international production areas force agricultural firms to mobilize specific resources: capitals, natural resources (land, water, sun) and cheap labor. That is why such zones of production relocate to southern and eastern countries (relocate to the south and the east), reproducing in Europe the « Californian model », described in John Steinbeck's novel 'The Grapes of Wrath' (1939). Growers staying in Europe use immigrant workers to remain competitive. Those foreign farmworkers are weakened by the lack of a residence permit (« undocumented workers »), or a special legal status with limited rights (OFII contracts, contratos in origen). These legal casualizations allow some areas to stand international competition by creating an obedient, flexible and cheap workforce. This gives producers the opportunity to enjoy an 'in situ delocalization', according to an expression used by Emmanuel Terray in 1999. This map was drawn from specific cases (andalusian greenhouses, southern Italy, French department of Bouches-du-Rhône, Morocco). It is not exhaustive but try to give some benchmarks to think about the consequences of agricultural globalization. For this specific industry, it summarizes the deregulation and flexibilisation of labor that shape the routes and the living conditions of foreign laborers. It announces, as Alain Morice predicted for others sectors, the end of the immigrant worker and the generalization of a « circular migrant workforce » whose installation is not permitted.
Domaines
Sociologie
Origine : Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)
