Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DIGNITYFIRM (Dignity For Irregular Migrants in EU Farm2Fork Labour Markets)
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-04-01 bis 2024-06-30
The DignityFIRM project is driven by the ambition to deepen the understanding of and improve policies related to two pressing realities faced by Europe today and in the future. The first concerns the labour shortages in sectors vital to our food supply chain, which have become more evident since the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Migrant workers play a pivotal role in food production and distribution but often are not provided with safe and dignified working conditions. The second reality is the EU’s commitment to protecting the dignity of all individuals, including migrant workers in Farm to Fork (F2F) labour markets who are not authorized to stay within the EU. The project aims to generate knowledge, policy suggestions, and practical tools tailored to the unique challenges faced by people who move across borders and work in the food supply chain.
The project’s focus on F2F labour markets (the food supply chain) is timely given the instrumental role of these industries in securing EU livelihoods, and their high systemic dependency on irregular migrant workers that coincides with persistent group vulnerabilities.
Our goal is to ensure that migrant workers have knowledge and access to their rights and essential services while simultaneously addressing the well-being of the receiving communities, contributing to a more equitable and dignified future for F2F sector workers in the EU during the transition to sustainable F2F industries.
The project’s focus on F2F labour markets (the food supply chain) is timely given the instrumental role of these industries in securing EU livelihoods, and their high systemic dependency on irregular migrant workers that coincides with persistent group vulnerabilities.
Our goal is to ensure that migrant workers have knowledge and access to their rights and essential services while simultaneously addressing the well-being of the receiving communities, contributing to a more equitable and dignified future for F2F sector workers in the EU during the transition to sustainable F2F industries.
The DignityFIRM project kicked off in April 2023. The activities performed since include regular interdisciplinary labs for knowledge sharing. A topic regularly discussed is the regulatory infrastructure, meaning the various EU legal and policy frameworks at play. On the topic, a paper was written that transcends traditional policy silos and disciplinary boundaries by providing an overview of relevant EU-wide and EU-level policy developments related to the four policy domains: migration management, the European Pillar of Social Rights, the EU’s F2F strategy and corporate social responsibility. In quarterly EU policy updates made available publicly on the website, we keep researchers and policy makers informed on recent policy developments. We thus achieve knowledge production across multiple policy fields.
Moreover, the first of four Stakeholder Network meetings was hosted in Brussels “From Social Conditionality to Due Diligence: what prospects for improving the working conditions of irregular migrant workers in agriculture in the future EU policy cycle?” With a variety of experts representing our key stakeholders: civil society, business, science, and politics, we discussed the EU Common Agricultural Policy. The discussion was reflected on in the first DignityFIRM Manifesto. The main achievement of these activities is that we successfully raised awareness of how vital to our food supply chain migrant workers are. We raised awareness of the need to enhance governance structures and propose group sensitive policy measures in migration policies as well as agricultural policies. Without migrant workers, agricultural production in large parts of Europe, and beyond, would come to a hold.
To improve dignity of all individuals, including migrant workers in Farm to Fork (F2F) labour markets, the project aims to design practical tools and to this end, calls for narrative change. In our publication in the Lancet – regional Health Europe we advocate the building of alliances between migrant health and communication science, as well as between academia and civil society and migrant organizations, as these will be instrumental in jointly changing narratives and policies toward greater inclusion, equity, and social justice.
Moreover, the first of four Stakeholder Network meetings was hosted in Brussels “From Social Conditionality to Due Diligence: what prospects for improving the working conditions of irregular migrant workers in agriculture in the future EU policy cycle?” With a variety of experts representing our key stakeholders: civil society, business, science, and politics, we discussed the EU Common Agricultural Policy. The discussion was reflected on in the first DignityFIRM Manifesto. The main achievement of these activities is that we successfully raised awareness of how vital to our food supply chain migrant workers are. We raised awareness of the need to enhance governance structures and propose group sensitive policy measures in migration policies as well as agricultural policies. Without migrant workers, agricultural production in large parts of Europe, and beyond, would come to a hold.
To improve dignity of all individuals, including migrant workers in Farm to Fork (F2F) labour markets, the project aims to design practical tools and to this end, calls for narrative change. In our publication in the Lancet – regional Health Europe we advocate the building of alliances between migrant health and communication science, as well as between academia and civil society and migrant organizations, as these will be instrumental in jointly changing narratives and policies toward greater inclusion, equity, and social justice.
The DignityFIRM project has potential impact on local, national and EU migration and integration policies but also takes us beyond the field of migration policy. Employer reliance on irregular migrant workers is recognized as a key driver of irregular migration of EU citizens and third-country nationals. Our research contributes to understanding and challenging this employer reliance. This takes us into multiple policy fields and has us invite policy makers to go beyond their policy silo's. This is the regulatory infrastructure approach we advocate. We go beyond the state of the art by creating new knowledge through legal analysis of interconnected policy fields (from fair pricing for farmers to fighting human trafficking in supply chains). Moreover, understanding local level policies, (non)regulation of local labour markets and supply chains driving employers’ dependency on irregular migrants is what is needed next to be able to improve how migrant workers are treated in the EU and Associated Countries when performing their vital role in the Farm to Fork sectors.
Key needs to ensure further uptake and success of the project is to engage employers across the food supply chain. As potential end-users of our findings, we go beyond the farmer that hires migrant workers. We must also engage retailers as responsible actors for fair pricing and – subsequently - dignified working conditions for all. This also goes for end-users responsible for public procurement.
Key needs to ensure further uptake and success of the project is to engage employers across the food supply chain. As potential end-users of our findings, we go beyond the farmer that hires migrant workers. We must also engage retailers as responsible actors for fair pricing and – subsequently - dignified working conditions for all. This also goes for end-users responsible for public procurement.