From Family to Domestic and Global Labour? A Decade of Proletarisation of Labour in the Norwegian Horticulture Industry

Abstract

This paper analyses the profound structural transformations that took place in Norway's horticulture industry between 1999 and 2010. The aggregate industrial outputs from the industry remained stable in this period. However, the number of horticulture farms dropped by 40.5% and the remaining farms became accordingly larger. We analyse how this development was related to changing labour strategies on Norwegian farms during this period, in part affected by labour market deregulation following the EU enlargements in 2004 and 2007. The analysis utilises Agricultural Census data covering the full population of horticulture farms in Norway in 1999 (N=5,105) and all farms in the country in 2010 (N=46,624, of which 3036 now were horticulture farms). Results suggest that the enhanced availability of inexpensive and flexible global labour is strongly associated with a stepwise proletarisation of Norwegian horticulture. Family labour is being systematically replaced by wage labour and domestic workers are being replaced by lowwage migrant workers. Abstrakt: Artikkelen analyserer de betydelige strukturelle endringene som fant sted i det norske hagebruket mellom 1999 og 2010. Produksjonsvolumet holdt seg stabilt gjennom perioden. Antallet hortikulturelle gårdsbruk ble samtidig redusert med 40,5 prosent, mens den gjennomsnittlige bruksstørrelsen økte tilsvarende. Vi analyser hvordan disse endringene kan knyttes til utviklingen av hagebrukets arbeidskraftstrategier i denne perioden, blant annet effektene av EU-utvidelsene i 2004 og 2007. Analysene bygger på Statistisk sentralbyrås Landbrukstellinger i 1999 (N = 5101 hagebruk) og i 2010 (N = 3036 hagebruk, 46624 gårdsbruk totalt). Resultatene viser at tilgangen på billig og fleksibel migrerende arbeidskraft fra de nye EU-landene kan knyttes til en stegvis proletarisering av arbeidskraften i det norske hagebruket; først blir familiearbeidskraft erstattes av innenlandske lønnsarbeidere, som deretter erstattes av utenlandske landbruksarbeidere.Nøkkelord: landbruk, familiearbeidskraft, hagebruk, arbeidsmarkeder, migranter, proletarisering * The 1999 and 2010 "others"-category is not directly comparable. The 2010 estimate better captures the use of off-farm service providers, e.g., contractors, which became more commonplace in the industry during the decade.

Lessons from the mountains

“…This agricultural squeeze forced independent farmers to cut down on production costs, including labour. Similar trends can be observed in both northern and southern Europe (Reigada 2017, Rye, Slettebak andBjørkhaug 2018), as well as in other global regions (Martin 2016).…”

“…However, the uncertainty related to shepherding gives to the migrant workers the opportunity to mobilise numerous 'weapons of the weak' (Scott 1985) and survival strategies. They carve out wide spaces of freedom and autonomy through the daily practices that 'build' pastoralism as an open and multifunctional activity in an uncertain context.…”

From panic to business as usual: What coronavirus has revealed about migrant labour, agri‐food systems and industrial relations in the Nordic countries

“…Thirty thousand migrant workers are estimated to work in agriculture in Norway. This figure is an estimate made by the authors based on a study from 2022 conducted by the Institute for Rural and Regional Research (Ruralis) in Norway (Zahl-Thanem & Melås, 2022; see also Rye et al, 2018). The total of these different figures and estimates is 88,600.…”

“…6 Given the different sources, and the fact that it is in part based on estimates (see note 6), this figure must be seen as provisional, but it is almost certainly an undercount, as it does not include migrant workers in food processing. Regardless of the quality of the estimations, the attention to numbers in the debate in all the studied countries clearly indicates the perceived significance of the migrant labour force to food production and that the reliance on hired migrants is increasing, both in the Nordic countries and globally (Rye et al, 2018).…”

Agriculture in Transition: New Strategies for the Promotion of Occupational Health and Safety

“…Globalization is claimed to be one of the most significant drivers for this transformation due to a global market, lacking protectionist borders and trade across countries (ibid). In the case of Norway, farmers have become part of a globalized labor market, and dependent on labor supply across national borders [17] with an increasingly larger group of foreign, temporary, and seasonal workers [18]. Norwegian farmers face stronger competition in domestic markets, and increased interest from international capital [19].…”