ABSTRACT

In recent years, Mediterranean agriculture has experienced important transformations which have led to new forms of labour and production, and in particular to a surge in the recruitment of migrant labour. The Mediterranean Basin represents a very interesting arena that is able to illustrate labour conditions and mobility, the competition among different farming models, and the consequences in terms of the proletarianization process, food crisis and diet changes.

Migration and Agriculture brings together international contributors from across several disciplines to describe and analyse labour conditions and international migrations in relation to agri-food restructuring processes. This unique collection of articles connects migration issues with the proletarianization process and agrarian transitions that have affected Southern European as well as some Middle Eastern and Northern African countries in different ways. The chapters present case studies from a range of territories in the Mediterranean Basin, offering empirical data and theoretical analysis in order to grasp the complexity of the processes that are occurring.

This book offers a uniquely comprehensive overview of migrations, territories and agro-food production in this key region, and will be an indispensable resource to scholars in migration studies, rural sociology, social geography and the political economy of agriculture.

part 1|52 pages

Migrant labour and ‘quality' food products

chapter 2|15 pages

The (sacred) cow business

Narratives and practices of the ‘ethnic niche' of Indian Punjab milkers in the Po Valley

chapter 3|16 pages

Wine heritage and the ethnicization of labour

Arab workers in the Bordeaux vineyards

chapter 4|19 pages

Processing tomatoes in the era of the retailing revolution

Mechanization and migrant labour in northern and southern Italy

part 2|68 pages

Social (un)sustainability of intensive agriculture

chapter 5|16 pages

Producing and mobilizing vulnerable workers

The agribusiness of the region of Murcia (Spain)

chapter 6|16 pages

Family farms, migrant labourers and regional imbalance in global agri-food systems

On the social (un)sustainability of intensive strawberry production in Huelva (Spain)

chapter 7|17 pages

The citrus fruit crisis

Value chains and ‘just in time' migrants in Rosarno (Italy) and Valencia (Spain)

chapter 8|17 pages

Migrant labour and intensive agricultural production in Greece

The case of the Manolada strawberry industry

part 3|36 pages

Restructuring of agri-food systems in Maghreb and the Middle-East

chapter 9|21 pages

Contested red gold

The tomato in the context of European–Moroccan relations

chapter 10|13 pages

Refugees in the agricultural sector

Some notes on Syrians in Hatay province, Turkey

part 4|78 pages

Restructuring of agricultural labour markets in Southern Europe and Maghreb

chapter 11|15 pages

Persistent unfree labour in French intensive agriculture

An historical overview of the ‘OFII' temporary farmworkers programme

chapter 12|19 pages

They know that you'll leave, like a dog moving onto the next bin'

Undocumented male and seasonal contracted female workers in the agricultural labour market of Huelva, Spain

chapter 13|14 pages

The land of informal intermediation

The social regulation of migrant agricultural labour in the Piana del Sele, Italy

chapter 14|15 pages

From the Al-Maghrib to the Al-Gharb

An anatomy of the recruitment and labour incorporation of Moroccan agricultural workers in the Algarve, Southern Portugal

part 5|50 pages

Conflicts and resistances

chapter 17|16 pages

Unionism of migrant farm workers

The Sindicato Obreros del Campo (SOC) in Andalusia, Spain

chapter 18|16 pages

Entering the ‘plastic factories'

Conflicts and competition in Sicilian greenhouses and packinghouses