Abstract
Through this paper, the author emphasises the importance of the role that migrant women and men play in the Italian agricultural sector, and the need to better protect them from forms of labour exploitation. Italian products are well known all over the world and represent the excellency of an entrepreneurial fabric made of thousands of family-run small and medium enterprises which from the Alps to Sicily produce unique fruits, vegetables, food, and wines. But a long history of illegal recruitment and labour exploitation, known in Italy as caporalato, tarnish the long supply chain which brings Italian agri-food products to dining tables and market shelves across the globe. In addition, to cope with the forms of exploitation occurring in the Italian countryside, this the paper points out the need to harmonise norms and regulation on labour, migration, and human rights. In doing so, it also argues that both the mens legislatoris and law enforcement authorities modus operandi should progressively move from an approach which is based on a relentless pursuit of the organized crime component for criminalising the acts of labour exploitation and illegal recruitment as defined in the criminal code, to a more comprehensive and holistic approach which puts the rights of migrant agricultural workers as the agenda’s top priority.
Highlights
The 2020–2021 biennium marks a memorable break in historical memory, as the COVID-19 pandemic further undermines the already existing socio-economic inequalities and fragilities that affect the most vulnerable groups of Italian society
Scaturro: Modern Slavery Made in Italy—Causes and Consequences of Labour Exploitation in the Italian Agricultural Sector vegetables desired across the globe, but all that glitters is not gold: from the southern latifundismo systems that emerged after World War II to modern schemes of forced labour throughout the country, Italian ‘excellencies’ have often counted on crime perpetrated against rural and agricultural communities
By analysing the phenomenon from a supply-demand perspective, and illustrating how the Italian legal system regulates labour and migration with an emphasis on the newly introduced law on labour exploitation, this contribution argues that caporalato takes place in the Italian countryside for a number of different reasons ranging from the lack of a human rights-based approach (HRBA) in the Italian legal instruments, to the role that large international retail groups play in ensuring price stability
Summary
The author emphasises the importance of the role that migrant women and men play in the Italian agricultural sector, and the need to better protect them from forms of labour exploitation. Starting with an analysis of labour exploitation instances, this paper offers a cross section of the Italian agricultural system and highlights the importance of the role played by migrant workers in terms of their relative contribution to the total agricultural workforce, and the support they seasonally guarantee to Italian entrepreneurs for the production of their excellencies It sheds light on some of the many forms of labour exploitation taking place in Italian agriculture, which are part of a phenomenon of modern slavery known in Italy as caporalato and that affects thousands of migrant workers every year. It concludes with a few recommendations aimed at promoting a more holistic approach to the phenomenon, while arguing that a persistent search for an organized crime component in labour exploitation might often result in misrepresenting the seriousness of single and isolated cases of exploitation
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