Co-incidentally, I was discussing this with a barman yesterday. He was from near the Spanish border in Beira and said that there was now a big soft-fruit industry there, too, which relied on migrant labour for the pickers. This was something I was previously fairly oblivious to.Fruit pickers lured to Portugal by the dream of a ‘raspberry passport’
Farm workers from south Asia describe exploitative conditions at the heart of Europe’s soft fruits industry.
Sagar is one of more than 10,000 young men and women who have left their home countries to find work in Portugal’s £200m berry industry, picking fruit that will be sold in supermarkets across Europe.
They are drawn to Portugal and the heart of Europe’s soft fruits industry by the dream of what many refer to as a “raspberry passport”.
That’s because whether or not they entered Europe legally, upon arrival in Portugal, foreigners of any nationality can apply for temporary residency, as long as they have a work contract and can prove they are paying taxes in the country. [...]
Once a worker has acquired temporary residency they can then begin a five-year countdown to citizenship – and a much-longed for Portuguese passport. [...]
In the meantime, many overseas workers endure what they describe as exploitative conditions, fearful that changing jobs will nullify their residency application.
I noticed that neither he, nor this article, describe the migrant labour being used for any of the more traditional agriculture we might associate with Portugal—I think a lot of the soft-fruit industry is quite modern—but it made me wonder if there are similar issues with the wine-industry? I’ve always wondered how the producers get enough people together to harvest, especially since I have been told endlessly that the younger generation are moving from rural areas to the cities and abroad. And, of course, picking in the Douro is no less labour intensive now in many places than it was 100 years ago. But I’ve never seen much mention of migrant labour being involved. Does anyone know how it works in practice?
