Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Mig.Pro. (Migrants’ protests: How the borders of citizenship are conceived, mobilized and constructed by migrants’ farm workers protests)
Reporting period: 2022-10-01 to 2024-11-30
This research project aims to explore migrant agricultural workers’ (Maw) grassroots struggles for fundamental human rights, decent living and working conditions, by looking at everyday forms of protest and mobilisation in two different contexts: Canada and Italy.
Existing international research shows an historical global trend in super-exploitative practices for migrant agricultural workers. Yet, while structural and systemic living, working condition and super-exploitation has gained attention over the past decades, the voice, agency and resistance practices activated by migrant agricultural workers’ as well as by their supporters deserve more in depth analysis.
Canada and Italy represent two unique research contexts for the following reasons:
- Despite both countries having engaged in projects to counter exploitation, to support MAWs and have implemented policies/laws for ‘vulnerable’ workers, exploitative working conditions in agriculture have been noted in both contexts;
- In both countries while there are ongoing campaigns and social movements of MAWs and for MAWs’ to access fundamental rights (to legal status, decent housing, health, unionization, etc.,) these have gained limited attention in literature;
- The different structural (normative, economic, historical, political) conditions of these two contexts make them illustrative cases to explore possible interconnections among structural conditions and social movements for expanding rights not only for people with a migratory background but for the overall population.
Indeed, during his visit to Canada in 2023, the Special Rapporteur of the United States Prof. Tomoya Obokata declared Canada’s temporary foreign worker programmes “constitute a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery”. The Special Rapporteur arrived at a similar conclusion, when she visited Italy in 2018. She said, “Labour exploitation is particularly prevalent in the agricultural sector. Of the approximately 1.3 million agricultural workers, some 405,000 are migrants with either a regular or irregular migration status”.
In Canada, the migrant workforce in this sector is growing every year:
There were 276,977 employees in the agriculture sector in 2021, almost half (49.9%) of all employees in the agriculture sector in 2021 were seasonal employees. Over one-fifth of all seasonal employees worked at greenhouse. The same year, the agriculture sector employed 60,992 temporary foreign workers (Statistics Canada).
There are non-estimates about workers without a regular contract and a permit of stay in this sector at the country level. “There are no accurate figures representing the number or composition of undocumented immigrants residing in Canada. Estimates from academic sources range between 20,000 and 500,000 persons, although there may be more.” (CIMM, 2023)
While in Italy for the same year, 2021, the estimates of the annual report Placido Rizzotto (VI report) speak of a total workforce estimated at about 900 thousand people, of which migrant workers without a permit of stay are estimated to reach 300 thousand over the course of a year with different types of work commitment that remains difficult to estimate. The research, investigations of the judicial authorities and journalistic inquiries bring to public attention almost daily the living and working conditions, the exploitation and even the deaths of this part of the population that provides food to the rest of the country.
Even though, as mentioned above, across Canada and Italy multiple grass roots movements and networks have mobilized since the last 20 years and more to denounce the human rights violation of this part of the population. These networks of activists span, represent, and are made up of migrant-lead and migrant-based associations/NGOs, migrant agricultural workers and activists, different stakeholders engaged in human rights protection, research centres and institutions already committed in analysing and dialoguing with the local and federal government.
By taking a critical feminist standpoint informed by methodological principles of Situational Analysis’ principles (for the Canadian context) and Participatory Action Research (for the Italian one) the project seeks to bridge these two broad areas: super-exploitation and workers’ voice, protests, agency.
Additionally by analysing specificities and similarities in Italy and Canada it aims to bring a contribution both to research as well as to stakeholders and MAWs in terms of sharing knowledge and fostering social transformation. How this project will contribute to the political and strategic context:
Through empirical research, this project aims to contribute in terms of:
1) Academic insights and nuances on the experiences of people with a migratory background in claiming their rights.
2) Political and societal impact: The topics of this project intersect with the application of several UN (United Nations) policies and norms, such as the 2030 goals for a Sustainable Development, in particular goals nr. 3 (health and well-being); nr. 5 (gender equality); and nr. 8 (immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking) and EU policy goals (such as: tackling discrimination; gender equality; and equal pay rules.).
3) Expected social impact: It may have a beneficial impact, starting from the interactions among all actors in the field who will participate in the research process: migrants, activist-migrants, migrants’ supporters, stakeholders, local administrators, and, in this way, contribute to a) changes to social interactions since it challenges current narratives and representations that concern people with a migrant background and their paths of political activation from below; b) greater emphasis and analysis of the health and economic impact particularly taking into account the profound implications of precarious/contested citizenship and undocumented status to the access of decent housing and healthcare services.
Existing international research shows an historical global trend in super-exploitative practices for migrant agricultural workers. Yet, while structural and systemic living, working condition and super-exploitation has gained attention over the past decades, the voice, agency and resistance practices activated by migrant agricultural workers’ as well as by their supporters deserve more in depth analysis.
Canada and Italy represent two unique research contexts for the following reasons:
- Despite both countries having engaged in projects to counter exploitation, to support MAWs and have implemented policies/laws for ‘vulnerable’ workers, exploitative working conditions in agriculture have been noted in both contexts;
- In both countries while there are ongoing campaigns and social movements of MAWs and for MAWs’ to access fundamental rights (to legal status, decent housing, health, unionization, etc.,) these have gained limited attention in literature;
- The different structural (normative, economic, historical, political) conditions of these two contexts make them illustrative cases to explore possible interconnections among structural conditions and social movements for expanding rights not only for people with a migratory background but for the overall population.
Indeed, during his visit to Canada in 2023, the Special Rapporteur of the United States Prof. Tomoya Obokata declared Canada’s temporary foreign worker programmes “constitute a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery”. The Special Rapporteur arrived at a similar conclusion, when she visited Italy in 2018. She said, “Labour exploitation is particularly prevalent in the agricultural sector. Of the approximately 1.3 million agricultural workers, some 405,000 are migrants with either a regular or irregular migration status”.
In Canada, the migrant workforce in this sector is growing every year:
There were 276,977 employees in the agriculture sector in 2021, almost half (49.9%) of all employees in the agriculture sector in 2021 were seasonal employees. Over one-fifth of all seasonal employees worked at greenhouse. The same year, the agriculture sector employed 60,992 temporary foreign workers (Statistics Canada).
There are non-estimates about workers without a regular contract and a permit of stay in this sector at the country level. “There are no accurate figures representing the number or composition of undocumented immigrants residing in Canada. Estimates from academic sources range between 20,000 and 500,000 persons, although there may be more.” (CIMM, 2023)
While in Italy for the same year, 2021, the estimates of the annual report Placido Rizzotto (VI report) speak of a total workforce estimated at about 900 thousand people, of which migrant workers without a permit of stay are estimated to reach 300 thousand over the course of a year with different types of work commitment that remains difficult to estimate. The research, investigations of the judicial authorities and journalistic inquiries bring to public attention almost daily the living and working conditions, the exploitation and even the deaths of this part of the population that provides food to the rest of the country.
Even though, as mentioned above, across Canada and Italy multiple grass roots movements and networks have mobilized since the last 20 years and more to denounce the human rights violation of this part of the population. These networks of activists span, represent, and are made up of migrant-lead and migrant-based associations/NGOs, migrant agricultural workers and activists, different stakeholders engaged in human rights protection, research centres and institutions already committed in analysing and dialoguing with the local and federal government.
By taking a critical feminist standpoint informed by methodological principles of Situational Analysis’ principles (for the Canadian context) and Participatory Action Research (for the Italian one) the project seeks to bridge these two broad areas: super-exploitation and workers’ voice, protests, agency.
Additionally by analysing specificities and similarities in Italy and Canada it aims to bring a contribution both to research as well as to stakeholders and MAWs in terms of sharing knowledge and fostering social transformation. How this project will contribute to the political and strategic context:
Through empirical research, this project aims to contribute in terms of:
1) Academic insights and nuances on the experiences of people with a migratory background in claiming their rights.
2) Political and societal impact: The topics of this project intersect with the application of several UN (United Nations) policies and norms, such as the 2030 goals for a Sustainable Development, in particular goals nr. 3 (health and well-being); nr. 5 (gender equality); and nr. 8 (immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking) and EU policy goals (such as: tackling discrimination; gender equality; and equal pay rules.).
3) Expected social impact: It may have a beneficial impact, starting from the interactions among all actors in the field who will participate in the research process: migrants, activist-migrants, migrants’ supporters, stakeholders, local administrators, and, in this way, contribute to a) changes to social interactions since it challenges current narratives and representations that concern people with a migrant background and their paths of political activation from below; b) greater emphasis and analysis of the health and economic impact particularly taking into account the profound implications of precarious/contested citizenship and undocumented status to the access of decent housing and healthcare services.
For the reporting period, from 1/10/2022 to 30/11/2024, Mig. Pro. has performed work in four key activities:
Training: with the aim to development an empirically grounded theoretical/methodological framework able to grasp specificities in each of two study- contexts, the fellow engaged in several training seminars, among others: 1) Introducing Institutional Ethnography: An Interdisciplinary Feminist Approach to Social Research, run by University of Southampton, on 15-16 January 2024, organised by the National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM); 2) Institutional Ethnography as a Sociology for People. A hybrid conference on the work and legacy of Dorothy Smith, Thursday 18 April and Friday 19 April 2024, Department of Sociology and Social Work, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania; 3) Publishing Research from MSCA on Open Research Europe, June 2024; 4) Research Communication Week, 3-7 June 2024, Ca’ Foscari; 5) Workshop on De- / Anti-Colonial Methods for Creating Collectivity, Incorporating Multiple Forms of Valuing and Supporting the Persistence of Our Relationships, provided by El Cambalache from its Department of Decolonial Economics, (March – May, 2024); 6)CERC seminar/workshops; 7) COSMOS seminars/workshops; 8) ECPR seminars/workshops.
Literature and research experiences from different disciplines: the fellow has carried out a thorough review of current literature for each context on: i) social movements – in particular on network of supporters and advocacy for legal status and fundamental rights; ii) labour studies - in particular on the role of Trade Unions and power relations as they relates to migrant workers in agriculture; iii) migration studies as they relate to the representation of migrant workers in this sector and their agency; iv) feminist and critical studies in order to grasp the intersectionality at play in this specific productive context, within movements and not only.
Fieldwork: ethics assessment and protocols; mapping of: networks of supporters, stakeholders; grass-roots movements; consultative meetings with activists and stakeholders; interviews with, activists, scholars and stakeholders; digital ethnography; policy analysis; participant observations; establishing academic networks.
Academic publications:
• With Perocco, F., “Travailleuses agricoles migrantes en Italie et au Canada: précarité, exploitation, violence” (Forthcoming, chapter in collected volume)
• With Caxaj, C. S., Naranjo, C. T., Chew, A., Hao, Y.T. and Nguyen, M., (2023). “Health, social and legal supports for migrant agricultural workers in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Canada, Australia and New Zealand: A Scoping Review”. “Frontiers in Public Health”, 11, 1182816. DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1182816
• With Scarabello, S. (2023). “Lost encounters? The time-scale temporalities involved in countering gang-master and labour exploitation policies”."The Lab’s Quarterly". a. XXV / n. 2 - ISSN 2035-5548 | 1724-451X
Training: with the aim to development an empirically grounded theoretical/methodological framework able to grasp specificities in each of two study- contexts, the fellow engaged in several training seminars, among others: 1) Introducing Institutional Ethnography: An Interdisciplinary Feminist Approach to Social Research, run by University of Southampton, on 15-16 January 2024, organised by the National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM); 2) Institutional Ethnography as a Sociology for People. A hybrid conference on the work and legacy of Dorothy Smith, Thursday 18 April and Friday 19 April 2024, Department of Sociology and Social Work, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania; 3) Publishing Research from MSCA on Open Research Europe, June 2024; 4) Research Communication Week, 3-7 June 2024, Ca’ Foscari; 5) Workshop on De- / Anti-Colonial Methods for Creating Collectivity, Incorporating Multiple Forms of Valuing and Supporting the Persistence of Our Relationships, provided by El Cambalache from its Department of Decolonial Economics, (March – May, 2024); 6)CERC seminar/workshops; 7) COSMOS seminars/workshops; 8) ECPR seminars/workshops.
Literature and research experiences from different disciplines: the fellow has carried out a thorough review of current literature for each context on: i) social movements – in particular on network of supporters and advocacy for legal status and fundamental rights; ii) labour studies - in particular on the role of Trade Unions and power relations as they relates to migrant workers in agriculture; iii) migration studies as they relate to the representation of migrant workers in this sector and their agency; iv) feminist and critical studies in order to grasp the intersectionality at play in this specific productive context, within movements and not only.
Fieldwork: ethics assessment and protocols; mapping of: networks of supporters, stakeholders; grass-roots movements; consultative meetings with activists and stakeholders; interviews with, activists, scholars and stakeholders; digital ethnography; policy analysis; participant observations; establishing academic networks.
Academic publications:
• With Perocco, F., “Travailleuses agricoles migrantes en Italie et au Canada: précarité, exploitation, violence” (Forthcoming, chapter in collected volume)
• With Caxaj, C. S., Naranjo, C. T., Chew, A., Hao, Y.T. and Nguyen, M., (2023). “Health, social and legal supports for migrant agricultural workers in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Canada, Australia and New Zealand: A Scoping Review”. “Frontiers in Public Health”, 11, 1182816. DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1182816
• With Scarabello, S. (2023). “Lost encounters? The time-scale temporalities involved in countering gang-master and labour exploitation policies”."The Lab’s Quarterly". a. XXV / n. 2 - ISSN 2035-5548 | 1724-451X
The Mig. Pro. objective is to produce ground-breaking knowledge, from an empirical, interdisciplinary and dialoguing perspective, about the challenges intrinsic to reconceptualising political subjectivities and citizenship. This in order to foster public debates on the role that the social sciences, policymakers, citizens and non-citizens alike have in shaping what citizenship is in the 21st century’s ‘inclusive’ Europe and also in North America and Canada in particular.
This unique bottom-up and interdisciplinary research critically elucidates possible ways forward for an urgent paradigm shift. One of Mig. PRO. main concern is to understand and expand knowledge at the grass roots level of migrant agricultural workers’ and their networks of supporters resistance and solidarity strategies, and the impact they may have to the whole country-ecosystem beyond having granted fundamental human rights. For this a broader range of ontologically different concepts needs to be considered.
By the end to the project, November 2025, and after its conclusion, project’s results are attended to be relevant: i) in each of the specific three aforementioned disciplines and in fostering interdisciplinary dialogue; ii) to policy makers, ‘citizens’ and ‘non citizens’ alike; ììì) in sparking new collaborations beyond the academic field.
This unique bottom-up and interdisciplinary research critically elucidates possible ways forward for an urgent paradigm shift. One of Mig. PRO. main concern is to understand and expand knowledge at the grass roots level of migrant agricultural workers’ and their networks of supporters resistance and solidarity strategies, and the impact they may have to the whole country-ecosystem beyond having granted fundamental human rights. For this a broader range of ontologically different concepts needs to be considered.
By the end to the project, November 2025, and after its conclusion, project’s results are attended to be relevant: i) in each of the specific three aforementioned disciplines and in fostering interdisciplinary dialogue; ii) to policy makers, ‘citizens’ and ‘non citizens’ alike; ììì) in sparking new collaborations beyond the academic field.