Seasonal agricultural workers in a pandemic: new faces of an old problem

Year after year Spain’s seasonal agricultural workers are in the news. In 2020, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the same problems were repeated over and over again. This paper analyses four cases that made the news: the conditions of the informal settlements in Andalusia; the Moroccan temporary workers hired in their country of origin who ended up trapped in Huelva; the death of an asylum seeker in Lorca and what it reveals about harsh rural working conditions; and seasonal workers living on the street in Lleida, which once again prompted debate over their housing conditions in the midst of the first COVID-19 outbreaks of the summer. The final objective of the paper is to use specific cases to illustrate longstanding structural problems and suggest possible solutions in the short, medium and long term.

How to cite this article: Garcés-Mascareñas, Blanca y Güell, Berta. «Temporeros agrícolas en contexto de pandemia: nuevas caras de un viejo problema». Anuario CIDOB de la Inmigración 2020 (enero de 2021), p. 86-100. DOI: doi.org/10.24241/AnuarioCIDOBInmi.2020.86

Keywords: Spain, seasonal agricultural workers, pandemic, global agricultural chains, migrant workers

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