International Labour Migration to Europe’s Rural Regions

Johan Fredrik Rye is Professor in sociology at the Department of Sociology and Political Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He has studied varies forms of mobility in late modern societies, including international labour migration, domestic migration of youths, and leisure mobilities, combining a range of qualitative and quantitative materials and research methods. Rye is currently leading the international comparative research project Global Labour in Rural Societies (Glarus). Karen O’Reilly is Emeritus Professor of Sociology, at Loughborough University, and an Independent Research Academic. She has been researching migration since the early 1990s and is author of numerous books and articles including The British on the Costa del Sol, Ethnographic methods, and International Migration and Social Theory. She is currently co-investigator on the ESRC-funded project Brexit Brits Abroad, and is on the International Advisory Board of Glarus.

• Section I: Transforming Europe’s Rural Industries1. New Perspectives on International Labour Migration to Europe’s Rural Regions2. Are the Guest-worker Programmes Still Effective? Insights from Romanian Migration to Spanish Agriculture3. The Social and Spatial Mobility Strategies of Migrants: Romanian Migrants in Rural Greece4. Ghettos, Camps and Dormitories: Migrant Workers' Living Conditions in Enclaves of Industrial Agriculture in Italy5. Lessons from the Mountains: Mobility and Migrations in Euro-Mediterranean Agro-Pastoralism 6. Temporary Farmworkers and Migration Transition: On a Changing Role of the Agricultural Sector in International Labour Migration to Poland 7. ‘Living on the Edge’? A Comparative Study of Processes of Marginalization among Polish Migrants in Rural Germany and Norway8. Changing Labor Standards and ‘subordinated Inclusion’: Thai Migrant Workers in the Swedish Forest Berry IndustrySection II: Transforming Europe’s Rural Societies9. Agricultural Employers’ Representation and Rationalisation of Their Work Offer: The ‘Benevolent Moderator’ 10. Emotions and Community Development after Return Migration in the Rural Arctic11. Does International Labour Migration Affect Internal Mobility in Rural Norway?12. ‘If We Do Not Have the Pickers, We Do Not Have the Industry’: Rural UK under a Brexit ShadowSection III: Concluding Remarks13. Farm Labour in California and Some Implications for Europe14. The (Re)Production of the Exploitative Nature of Rural Migrant Labour in Europe

"The global pandemic has painfully shown how international labour migration is essential to Europe’s economy and food security. Indeed the role of migration in revitalizing rural communities in Europe and in keeping agriculture afloat cannot be overstated. This is a timely and much needed book that investigates the social and economic implications of international labour migration to Europe’s rural regions from both empirical and analytical perspectives."Anna Triandafyllidou, Ryerson University, Canada"This is book is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the phenomenon of internal rural migration in Europe, its diversity of local practices and similarity in outcomes for social groups, rural industries and rural societies across and within countries in Europe. It is the combination of empirically rich, in-depth case studies that portray the human element of migration with discussions of their significance against the background of labour market and migration theories and the specificity of the rural context that makes the book so particularly insightful." Bettina Bock, Wageningen University & Research, Netherlands"In fourteen expertly-crafted chapters, this collection offers a historically-informed snapshot of the living and working conditions of people who migrate to rural areas of Europe and the US for agricultural work. Never flinching from sharp critical analysis of the racial capitalism that often seeks to divide workforces in order to weaken them, International Labour Migration to Europe’s Rural Regions also engages with rural workers’ responses to the multiple structures of oppression they face. This book could not be more timely. Emerging as it does during a pandemic that has seen agricultural workers finally gain recognition as ‘key workers’ it challenges the lie of ‘unskilled work’ and the stigma that often accompanies agricultural wage work."Ben Rogaly, University of Sussex, UK