Agriculture

From typicallyspanish.com: "A national police operation in Almería and Alicante has arrested three businessmen for illegally employing immigrants who were either using false documentation or the identity of another person. There were two arrests in El Ejido and another in Novelda, and it’s understood that one of the businessmen arrested in El Ejido was originally from Novelda. Also in custody are 21 immigrants from Brazil and China, with 11 of the arrests taking place in Alicante province and the remainder in Almería province.

Are migrants regarded as “victims” of economical determined relationships, that should be advised or protected? Or should migration be regarded as a potentially “subversive” process of crossborder appropriation of a better living and working quality?
Nicholas Bell, member of the European Civic Forum, warned in his contribution for a conference in Crete of a too optimistic view on the “autonomous qualities” of migration, referring to his own experiences with the working conditions in the agricultural business in El Eljido (Spain) and the enormous competition between old and new groups of – often undocumented - migrants, which come there to work.

The European Civic Forum (ECF) was established in December 1989, one month after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The initiative was taken by members of the European Cooperative Longo Mai

[1] together with a circle of friends in different countries. The main aims were to develop links of friendship and cooperation between people in eastern and western Europe, seek together new forms of social and political action as well as alternative ways of life, in opposition to the all too predictable triumph of neo-liberal free-market capitalism.

The ECF also aimed to pursue the activities of the European Committee for the Defence of Refugees and Immigrants (CEDRI) which had been created in 1982, also at the initiative of Longo Mai. This meant that the ECF also included a strong North-South element, in particular with regard to all matters concerning immigration and asylum.

Free Immigrant Farm Workers From Fear: A broad-based national coalition of farm worker organizations, labor unions, agricultural employers, immigrant advocates, and supporters are urging the U.S. Congress to enact the historic AgJobs legislation. It would allow undocumented farm workers to earn the legal right to permanently stay in this country by continuing to work in agriculture.

Over three and a half years after the brutal racist riots of 5-7 February 2000 against immigrant workers in El Ejido , there is still no improvement of the situation. On the contrary, according to the Sindicato de Obreros del Campo , there has been a clear deterioration.

Over the past three years the European Civic Forum has carried out an extensive study of the exploitation of migrants in European agriculture. It is impossible to examine the question of migration, whether legal or illegal, without seeing it within the context of a labour market in which certain economic sectors depend on the existence of an underpaid and exploited workforce, much of which is undeclared and of immigrant origin.