TRAMed : Transhumances in the Mediterranean –
EU Marie Curie contract ES 706/2014 # 326814
Michele NORI, Migration Policy Centre; michele.nori@eui.eu 
TRAMed website: https://me.eui.eu/michele-nori/research/ 
INTRO
Despite consistent political and financial engagement, the agricultural sector and rural areas in the EU suffer from population decline and ageing, particularly in mountainous areas and marginal territories, which cover about a third of southern EU lands. This phenomenon is being counterbalanced by the arrival of migrants who provide skilled labour at a relatively low cost, and help maintaining such territories alive and productive. 

TRAMed investigated on the specific role on immigrants in the agro-pastoral sector which characterises land use in most marginal territories in Mediterranean EU. Opposite to the idea that migratory flows challenge local traditions and identities, it is in fact through foreign foresters and shepherds that euro-Mediterranean landscapes are maintained, and valuable food products and environmental services in current times. TRAMed outcomes and products contributed informing a number of academic and policy debates, towards better informed and evidence-based decision-making at various levels with a view to enhance a smart, sustainable and inclusive rural development – as to the EU 2020 vision.  

Keywords: pastoralism, Mediterranean, migration, agriculture, generational renewal, CAP
PROJECT SUMMARY
Agriculture implies food production and land management, two basic functions of any society and civilisation. In third millennium Europe, such activities are increasingly carried out by foreign workers, who contribute their skills and experience to a sector that shows limited attractiveness to new European generations. While such phenomenon is visible throughout the European Union it has a particularly relevance in the Euro-Mediterranean context, where agricultural represents a main pillar of the socio-cultural and economic identities, and the region has only recently turned from and area of emigration to one of immigration.
Inspired by the framework proposed by F. Braudel, who described the Mediterranean as a “mosaic of peoples” and its mountains “lands of migration” - TRAMed research initiative investigated recent evolutions in the workforce of agro-pastoral systems in Mediterranean EU. The pastoral world - extensive livestock husbandry - provides in fact a consistent framework to assess and analyse territorial polarization and sectoral restructuring the EU southern rims have undergone in recent decades. While in fact this practice is increasingly appreciated for its quality products and socio-ecosystem services, agro-pastoralism suffers consistently from lack of workforce as well as generational renewal problems. The growing societal appreciation of pastoralism is not reflected by adequate improvements in the living and working conditions of shepherds. As a result local rural youth tends to rather opt for more urban-based livelihoods.  

As a result EU pasturelands witness an increasing presence of immigrant shepherds originating from pastoral communities in other parts of the Mediterranean, the Maghreb and the Balkans, but also from the Carpathian regions. Immigrant shepherds have come fill this manpower gap, contributing skilled labour and adaptability at a relatively low cost. The conditions these immigrants operate in are often extremely hard and precarious, but cases of virtuous contracts and dignified conditions are also reported. This phenomenon seems to reproduce mobility patterns that have characterized Mediterranean pastoralism in the last century. Problems though exist in integrating and upgrading such workforce in the sector with a view to tackle generational renewal problems – a matter of concern for the overall EU agrarian world. Immigrants’ large presence in agro-pastoralism attests to the relevance of the migratory phenomenon in keeping mountain territories alive and productive, as well as to its critical role in maintaining traditional practices and reproducing local identities. 
TRAMed has contributed developing a more effective understanding of the opportunities, the risks and the difficulties related to the increasing presence of immigrants in the agro-pastoral domain, with the aim to contribute to developing appropriate policies at local as well as at European levels. TRAMed investigations evolved through a specific set of case studies with more than a hundred interviews in different pastoral regions of Greece, Italy, Spain and southern France, with a view to specifically examine the presence, contribution and role of immigrant shepherds to local agro-pastoral sector in a comparative, regional perspective. Other complementary investigations addressed the impact of such phenomenon on migrants’ origin communities in Tunisia and Romania through a co-development approach.
In a time when society seems afraid that migrants’ flows challenge and undermine local culture and traditions, evidence shows instead that in many rural areas in Europe immigrants play a key role in maintaining and reproducing local societies and their embedded heritage. As the migrant workforce contributes to enhancing the resilience of the agriculture sector, opportunities are explored to better enhance their integration and graduation into the agrarian world. In such perspective TRAMed suggests that a proactive attitude is needed to facilitate the evolution of these workers to more entrepreneurial levels, so to enhance their long-term integration with view to ensure their contribution to the future of European agro-pastoralism. 

Table 1 – Recent demographic trends in Euro-Mediterranean countryside
Spain	France 	Italy	Greece 		
9.8	4.8	7.9	20.8	% rural/active pop. in 2008	
56.4	41.9	62.2	57.2	% older > 55 years 2008	
19.1	/	19.4	17	% immigrants on labourforce in 2008	
24		37	> 50	% immigrants on labourforce in 2013	
Source: Eurostat, 2008 ; Caruso et Corrado, 2015

Picture 1 – Traditional areas of pastoralism in the Mediterranean 

Source: Braudel, 1995

Table 2 – The sheep sector in EUMed countries (rounded data for 2010)
Country 	Sheep farms 	Sheep flock 	% meat production	% milk production	
Italy	50,000	7.5 million	35%	65%	
Spain	110,000	22 million	82%	18%	
France (total) 
Fr. Mediterranean	35,000
8,000	6 million
1.5 million	70%	30% 	
Greece 	200,000	9.5 million	15%	85%	
Total EUMed		40.5 million			
Sources: ISTAT, 2010; INE, 2013; Magrama, 2013; CIHEAM, 2011; Thales, 2014; Laore, 2013; FAO database

Table 3 – The presence of immigrants in Euro-Mediterranean pastoralism
Region 	Main production 	% of foreigners on total salaried shepherds	Country of origin for most of them	Average salary (in €)	Source 	

Italy	
Abruzzi
	Milk	90%	FYROM, Romania, Albania 	800	Coldiretti, 2013	
Triveneto
	Meat	70%	Romania	800	TRAMed	
Piedmont	Meat and milk	70%	Romania, Moldavia	800	TRAMed; INEA, 2009	
Val d’Aosta	Dairy cattle	70%	Romania, Morocco 	2,000	INEA, 2009;
Coldiretti, 2013	
Sardinia	Milk 	35%	Romania, Morocco	500–600	Mannia, 2010; TRAMed	
Calabrie	Milk	35%	Kurdistan, Pakistan, India	500–600	INEA, 2009	

Greece	
Thessaly 
	Milk 	50%	Albania, Bulgaria, Romanian Vlachs 	400–600	Thales, Domestic	
Peloponnese	Milk 	40%	Albania, Bulgaria, India, Pakistan	400–600	Thales, Domestic	
Crete	Milk 	35%	Albania, Bulgaria, India, Pakistan	400–600	Thales, TRAMed	

France	
Provence 	

Meat	Mostly during winter for large flocks	Romania Morocco, Tunisia	1,400	TRAMed; Fossati, 2013	
		65%
Mostly on summer pastures	Other regions of France or northern Europe	
1,500–2,500	TRAMed;
Meuret, 2010	
Pyrenees 	Milk	Few salaried shepherds 	Quite a limited phenomenon 		Meuret, 2010	
Maritime Alps 	Meat	20%	Romania		TRAMed	
Corsica	Milk and meat		Morocco		Terrazzoni, 2010	

Spain	
Valencia Community		70%	Morocco	600	AVA, 2009	
Catalan Pyrenees	Meat	55% 
	Romania, sub-Saharan Africa	600–700	Nadal et al., 2010	
Aragon Pyrenees	Meat 	60%	Morocco, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine		TRAMed	
Andalusia			Romania, sub-Saharan Africa		TRAMed	
Castillas	C. Léon meat
C. Mancha milk	35%	Morocco, Romania, Bulgaria, Portugal		TRAMed; Plataforma	
Basque country	Milk 		Romania	1,000	TRAMed	
Galicia			Portugal 		TRAMed	
Extremadura 			Portugal		TRAMed	

Table 4 – Migratory flows of shepherds through the Mediterranean in the 20th century
Region 	End of the 1800	1950s	1980s	1990s	 2000s	
Provence	Italy and Spain 	Morocco and Tunisia		Romania 	
Sardinia		Emigration from Sardinia to continental Italy	Morocco and Tunisia	Albania, FYROM	Romania	
Catalan Pyrenees	Neighbouring valleys: Vall de Boí, Vall Fosca	Andalusia 		Morocco	Romania sub-Saharan Africa 	
Turkey 		Kurdistan		Afghanistan 		
Picture 2. Trajectories of past (orange) and present (green) patterns of shepherds' migrations