ESSENTIAL BUT FORGOTTEN. MIGRANTS PICKING FRUITS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN VALENCIA

ABSTRACT

This article addresses the situation of migrant workers in La Ribera del Xuquer, a Valencian citrus-growing region, from the confinement of March 2020 to April 2021. Two periods of fieldwork were carried out, the second during the pandemic, with observation, informal contacts and interviews with 55 key informants of varying profiles. Although the risk situations during the harvest are common to all workers, Spaniards and immigrants, these affect with less or greater intensity according to the position occupied in the ethno-fragmented work structure, country of origin and, more broadly, social and living conditions. The pandemic situation and the measures taken have reinforced the pre-existing ethnic segmentation of the labour market. On the one hand, workers with "permanent-discontinuous"contracts, Spaniards and immigrants rooted in the area;on the other, temporary workers and those provided by temporary agencies, almost all of them immigrants, who accumulate risk, job insecurity and social insecurity. Copyright © 2022 CSIC.