The COVID-19 Crisis, Human Rights and Unfair Models of Production: The Case of Migrant Workers in the Agri-food Sector in European Countries

Since its outbreak, the COVID-19 crisis has sharply exacerbated the structural inequalities that characterize the socioeconomic systems of European Union (EU) countries, disproportionately impacting people most affected by discrimination and social exclusion. The Covid-19 crisis has also brought under the spotlight the significant role of migrant workers in core sectors – such as the agri-food sector – disclosing how they are fundamental in the economic and societal functioning of EU countries. At the same time, the pandemic has sharply disclosed the limits of long supply chains (in terms of price distortion, unfair competition and distribution dynamics), as well as the conditions of exploitation and vulnerability experienced by many migrant farm workers. Accordingly, an evident tension has emerged between containing the pandemic through mobility restrictions, on the one hand, and preventing foreign labour shortages (especially in key sectors) and making business work as usual, on the other. In this scenario, EU institutions and national governments have adopted several measures to address the social and economic consequences of the Covid-19 crisis in core sectors (such as agri-food) as well as migrants’ conditions of vulnerability. This paper provides a critical comparative analysis of relevant EU and national emergency measures adopted during the current pandemic to address migrants’ access to essential services and benefits, focusing on migrants’ working and living conditions in the agricultural sector in Italy and Spain. The paper also examines relevant decisions of national civil courts on this matter. In so doing, we explore to what extent the current health emergency may constitute an opportunity for a European and national rethinking of the dominant socio-economic model of production, and an enforcement of the rights of migrant persons, or instead only foster inequalities by exposing vulnerable people (such as migrants) to the risk of being subject to further forms of discrimination and fundamental rights violations.