Constraining labour: The integration dynamics of working‐class horticultural migrants in rural areas of Norway, the UK and the US

Abstract

This article argues that many low‐wage migrants moving to work in rural areas of the developed world end up in very specific and precarious employment and housing contexts: working in temporary/seasonal jobs within horticultural labour markets and often living in employer‐provided tied accommodation. This context—which we profile by drawing on qualitative case study evidence from Norway, the UK and the US—makes integration virtually impossible. It is only after moving on from precarious temporary/seasonal work and out from tied accommodation that rural integration becomes viable. Yet even then, the integration of these workers is often limited. Migrants are largely ‘quarantined’ and separate and invisible from the host society. Not surprisingly, migrants tend to treat their lack of rural integration as ‘liminal’, that is, a temporary and in‐between life stage. They also engage in ‘transnational simultaneity’ by maintaining family/communal relations back home, whilst focusing largely on work in the host country. This liminality and transnational simultaneity help working‐class migrants survive their quarantined lives.

Labour migration, precarious work and liminality

“…The third main sphere of migrants' liminality related to a lack of social life outside of the workplace (Jakobsen et al, forthcoming;Scott and Visser, 2022). Strauss (2018: 625), in a review of precarity, notes the need to focus on both 'life' and 'labour' drawing together the productive and reproductive spheres.…”

“…This 'bubble-like' existence was especially the case for circulatory migrants, and can make financial and practical sense for workers (on-site accommodation is relatively cheap and accessible), and certainly can help employers (when workers are close to the fields and are not faced with competing proprieties of work and family life). However, social liminality is not a state that many workers desire over the medium-to long-term (Horgan and Liinamaa, 2017;Perry, 2018;Scott and Visser, 2022).…”

La información de los medios de comunicación sobre la escasez de mano de obra en la horticultura del Reino Unido durante la pandemia de COVID-19: el uso de metáforas bélicas en la revelación selectiva de la precariedad laboral/de los trabajadores

“…Put simply, there is a tendency not to want to unveil the exploitative labour practices that have underpinned an era of relatively cheap and convenient food. Further, harvest workers often lead "quarantined" lives whilst on the farm (Horgan and Liinamaa, 2017;Scott and Visser, 2022) and tend to have little contact with permanent local residents.…”

Growing superdiverse, growing apart—Modes of incorporation of international migrants in rural areas

“…Moreover, our study extends the existing literature by focusing on settings of migration other than agriculture and horticulture. Those contexts facilitate largely circular and temporally fixed migration and by implication generate specific conditions of reception (King et al., 2021; Scott & Visser, 2022). Taking into consideration the variety of rural regions and how rural industries and labour markets structure migration, investigations of localities with other profiles may add to our overall understanding of the phenomenon.…”