The position of labor migrants in agriculture under the pandemic

ABSTRACT

Many countries face a shortage of labor resources and try to provide agricultural employment by attracting labor migrants from abroad. A ‘review’ of the role of labor migration in the development of agriculture requires a thorough analysis of migration statistics, since illegal migration is widespread, and there are no statistical records on seasonal workers. Therefore, migrants seem to make up an insignificant part of those employed in agriculture. However, the current global situation — the coronavirus pandemic — revealed a shortage of workplaces for labor migrants. In the pre-pandemic period, millions of foreign workers entered the Russian Federation every year. Under the pandemic, to attract migrants to agriculture and food production system of other countries became difficult, which highlighted their important role in the economic develop-ment. Therefore, the impact of the pandemic on the foreign labor market entered the agenda of international politics and measures to combat the covid-19 that limited mi-gration, thus, determining a shortage of workers in agriculture and the underestimation of their contribution to national economies of other countries. © 2021, Russian Presidental Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. All rights reserved.