IS ITALIAN AGRICULTURE A ‘PULL FACTOR’ FOR IRREGULAR MIGRATION – AND, IF SO, WHY? © 2018 Open Society Foundations uic b n dog. This publication is available as a PDF on the Open Society Foundations website under a Creative Commons license that allows copying and distributing the publication, only in its entirety, as long as it is attributed to the Open Society Foundations and used for noncommercial educational or public policy purposes. Photographs may not be used separately from the publication. Authors: Alessandra Corrado with contributions from Francesco Saverio Caruso; Martina Lo Cascio, Michele Nori; Letizia Palumbo; Anna Triandafyllidou Cover photo: © Piet den Blanken/Hollandse Hoogte/Redux opensocietyfoundations.org Is italian agriculture a 'pull factor' for irregular migration - and, if so, why? December 2018 CONTENTS 2 INTRODUCTION: UNPACKING THE DEMAND FOR UNDECLARED WORK IN THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR IN SOUTHERN ITALY 4 METHODOLOGY AND SCOPE 5 FACTORS DRIVING DEMAND FOR UNDECLARED AND SEVERELY EXPLOITATIVE WORK IN AGRICULTURE IN SOUTHERN ITALY 5 A. Historical trends and patterns of migrant involvement in agri-food production 10 B. Value chain dynamics and the impact of transport systems, retailers and market factors 12 C. Organised crime and corruption 12 D. Recruitment practices – the role of ‘caporalato’ 15 THE IMPACT OF EU AND ITALIAN POLICIES 15 EU Policies 15 a. Migration and asylum 15 b. Labour migration 16 c. Labour mobility in the EU 17 d. Policies on trafficking and exploitation 17 e. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 18 Italian Policies 18 a. Migration and asylum 20 b. Exploitation and trafficking 23 THE SOUTHERN EUROPEAN CONTEXT: SIMILAR CHALLENGES IN GREECE AND SPAIN 27 GOOD PRACTICES AGAINST LABOUR EXPLOITATION 30 CONCLUDING REMARKS 33 References 1 Is italian agriculture a 'pull factor' for irregular migration - and, if so, why? December 2018 INTRODUCTION: UNPACKING THE DEMAND FOR UNDECLARED WORK IN THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR IN SOUTHERN ITALY In September 2017, the European Commission context of neo-liberal globalization. This process Communication on the Mid-Term Review of the EU has been shaped by progressively hierarchized Agenda for Migration mentioned undeclared work in networks with the growing relevance of large specific sectors of the economy of various member corporations, high price volatility, and decreasing states as a ‘pull factor’ for irregular migration to returns to producers. Through an increasingly the EU. This study aims to provide comprehensive unfair distribution of risks, costs, and profits insights on the reality surrounding and framing the along the chain, food industries and retailers use restructuring of agricultural production in southern their oligopolistic market power of negotiation Italy to demonstrate how on-going dynamics are the to impose price and conditions on farmers, who outcome of specific policy strategies. have faced a dramatic economic squeeze since the 1970s. These changes have taken place in the The study seeks to analyse the broader framework context of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP), in which the rights of migrants and workers are which has been regularly reformed to promote violated, going beyond the focus on the abuse productivism through a modern and market-oriented endured by migrant workers in southern Italy—which agriculture. This process has contributed to widening has been reported on exhaustively over the last pre-existing inequalities and polarizations within the decade by the media and civil society organisations— European Union, enhancing cultural and territorial and the rather narrow actions by the EU and member transformations of rural areas through socio- states to counter the exploitation. The aim is to economic differentiations. investigate the multiple pressures on the agriculture system from the restructuring of agri-food chains This is the framework that triggered the and the factors pushing farmers to recruit migrant reconfiguration of agricultural manpower in its shift workers irregularly, profiting from their vulnerable from family labour to externally-sourced salaried condition. work and, eventually, from a local to a foreign workforce, with a growing presence of migrants The agricultural sector’s restructuring over the in farming activities. In a context of a progressive last three decades has resulted mainly from rural exodus, the relative proportion of migrants in the incorporation of farming in more capital- EU agriculture has been growing rapidly. Evidence intensive production systems and its dominance indicates that rural areas represent a favourable by increasingly competitive agri-food chains in the setting for newcomers, as they provide for easier 2 Is italian agriculture a 'pull factor' for irregular migration - and, if so, why? December 2018 access to basic livelihood sources and employment The case of southern Italy is emblematic because of opportunities. Rural areas also offer degrees of its historically seasonal and progressively specialized non-visibility and informality that help accommodate agriculture as well as because of some socio- migrants’ varying types of legal status while economic features specific to the area. In Calabria, simultaneously paving the way for irregular practices Sicily, Campania, Apulia, and Basilicata open-air and situations of harsh exploitation. or greenhouse seasonal productions of fruits and vegetables rely mainly on small and medium-sized Agriculture is the main sector plagued by the farms; products are oriented to fresh consumption or scourge of informal or undeclared work and serious processing, and serve distance distribution and large forms of worker exploitation across Europe (OECD retailers. Furthermore, in agriculture as much as in 2012). Demand for cheap labour is particularly the general economy, the labour market in southern high in Mediterranean European countries where Italy is characterized by informality in contractual agricultural labour is normally temporary and relationships. precarious, requiring workers to move from one region to the other according to seasonal agriculture Workers’ legal and social vulnerability results in needs in fruit and vegetable production. The many forms of human rights violations. The tragic systematic denial of the rights of women and men— deaths of 16 farm workers in two car accidents while especially migrant workers from eastern Europe, traveling to tomato fields in Apulia in August 2018 are Africa, and Asia—underpins most agricultural but the latest violent events concerning production production of seasonal fruits and vegetables in the relationships in Italian agriculture. Farm labourers EU Mediterranean region (Gertel and Sippel 2014; often work for 10 to 12 hours a day, are exposed to Corrado et al. 2016; Nori 2017). toxic pesticides and endure the summer heat and the winter cold for pay that is considerably below In this regional context, conditions in Italy are the legal minimum wage. Most live in degrading and particularly worrying. This, however, should not be unsanitary conditions in isolated outbuildings on solely a matter of national concern: the tomatoes, the farms, in dilapidated hovels, tent cities without oranges, strawberries, grapes, melons, watermelons, heating, or in urban slums many miles from the olives and other goods produced in southern Italy fields where they work. These conditions also largely eventually make their way onto supermarket shelves impact on migrant workers’ capacity to integrate into throughout Europe. The top export markets for such local societies. products are Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Sweden, and the UK (Oxfam 2018). An illegal gangmaster system known as caporalato exacerbates the suffering of female Although it is not easy to ascertain the precise and male workers. However, the forms of labour number of foreign workers in Italian agriculture, the intermediation, recruitment, and organisation most recent official figures show that in 2015 roughly of farm workers are differentiated, sometimes 48 per cent of the workforce employed in agriculture set by cooperatives or temporary work agencies. —or some 405,000 out of a total of 843,000 The conditions in which the caporalato system workers—were foreign nationals (CREA 2017). flourishes include high demand for short-term and very flexible labour; indirect farming, with labour Also, according to 2015 data, some 430,000 workers outsourcing, contract operations and leased land in this sector (i.e. more than 50 per cent) were and machineries; workplaces that are very isolated employed without an official contract; 80 per cent of (in remote rural areas) or present extremely harsh these workers, or 344,000, were foreign nationals and work conditions (e.g. greenhouses); inability of some 100,000 were identified as being at high risk of producer organisations (POs) to effectively represent exploitation. Close to half—42 per cent—of irregular local producers’ interests; the presence of criminal farm workers are women, who are usually over- organisations and a lack of official recruitment represented in unpaid and seasonal work (OPR 2018). services (Ismea 2017). 3 Is italian agriculture a 'pull factor' for irregular migration - and, if so, why? December 2018 METHODOLOGY AND SCOPE The study focuses on agriculture in southern Italy. The analysis draws attention to the dynamic It analyses the dynamics of specific agri-food relationships between the socio-economic context productions and chains (i.e. fruits and vegetables) and the relevant EU and