Producing labour stratification: how migration policies affect the working, living and housing conditions of migrant farmworkers

Abstract

ABSTRACT Based on a long-term investigation of migrant farmworkers within the Sicilian agricultural districts, this paper aims to use the lens of migratory stratification to scrutinize the various changes that have occurred in the agricultural sector over the past decade. Drawing on ethnographic data from an empirical study conducted on the working and living conditions of migrant farmworkers, this paper will shed light on the economic and social stratification strategies fostered by EU migration policies. In line with the issues addressed in this special issue, the paper analyses how migrant regulatory procedures have resulted in the deterioration of migrant farmworkers’ working, living and housing conditions. Before the so-called ‘refugee crisis’, the stratification of migrant farmworkers was mainly based on country of origin and involved labourers due to different times of arrival and legal status; with the onset of the ‘refugee crisis’, the mechanisms of stratification and labour substitution mainly involved asylum seekers.