Abstract
Over the last decades, the globalization of the food and agriculture sector has fueled international labor migration to rural areas in Southern Europe. Portugal is no exception to this trend, as the intensification of foreign investment in agriculture combined with a declining and ageing workforce created a demand for flexible immigrant labor. The Eastern European and Asian immigrant workers who answered the industry’s call were confronted with poor working conditions and lacking access to public services. In this article, we zoom in on the governance challenge that the presence of precarious immigrant workers (PIWs) poses to rural municipalities in the south of Portugal. The burgeoning literature on local integration policies mainly focuses on how cities deal with the challenge posed by international labor migration. This article draws on a detailed case study of the municipality of Odemira to argue that more attention needs to be paid to emerging local migration regimes in non-urban localities. By adopting a regime-theoretical approach, we study how power relations between the local government, civil society, and the private sector play out around the question of immigrant reception. Our study suggests that immigration policies in rural localities are increasingly being developed through cooperation and coproduction between public and private actors. First, we demonstrate how the presence of PIWs is perceived as a policy “problem” by each actor. Second, we outline how a governing coalition formed around the shared concern to improve arrival infrastructures, stimulate integration, mediate socio-cultural impact, and accommodate business interests. We conclude by critically questioning the impact that emerging local migration regimes have on the rights and social position of PIWs in rural contexts.
Highlights
Over the last decades, the globalization of the food and agriculture sector has fueled international labor migra‐ tion (ILM) to rural areas in Southern Europe
Our research indicates that the emergence of a local migration regimes (LMRs) in Odemira can be attributed to two main factors
Their efforts to support regularization and integration programs within the emerging LMR can be seen as ways to pro‐ mote their interests while aiding the local government to help manage the influx of precari‐ ous immigrant workers (PIWs) in their municipalities
Summary
The globalization of the food and agriculture sector has fueled international labor migra‐ tion (ILM) to rural areas in Southern Europe. Foreign investment in inten‐ sive agriculture has dramatically increased in Portugal since the 1980s (Pereira et al, 2016). Workers from Portuguese origin have been increasingly unwilling to accept the poor working conditions and low wages that characterize work in the sector (Fonseca, 2008). Rural areas in the south like Alentejo, where intensive agriculture like berry cultivation tends to be located, have become primary destinations for precari‐ ous immigrant workers (PIWs; Fonseca, 2008). We delib‐ erately use the term “precarious immigrant workers” here to underscore both the vulnerability, job insecurity, Politics and Governance, 2021, Volume 9, Issue 4, Pages 185–195 low pay, and lack of union representation that character‐ izes their working conditions and the precarity, deporta‐ bility, and illegality that characterizes their legal status (Goldring & Landolt, 2012; Thornley et al, 2010)
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