Lessons from the mountains : mobility and migrations in Euro-Mediterranean agro-pastoralism

Abstract

While the literature’s focus has been on the role of international migrant workers in intensive agricultural systems, little attention has been given to more marginal agro-ecological settings where capital-based production is not feasible. These areas cover a large part of the Euro-Mediterranean region and are affected by deep-rooted processes of economic as well as demographic decline. Here, agro-pastoralism – a multifunctional rural system based on extensive livestock rearing complemented by other agricultural activities – is a main source of livelihood and management of fragile landscapes. Since the restructuring of the agrarian world, agro-pastoral practices are decreasingly attractive to local populations. In this framework, the need for shepherding labour is increasingly met by international migrants who provide a skilled workforce at relatively low costs. Using the results of extensive fieldwork based on qualitative methods in pastoral regions of Greece, Spain, and Italy, the chapter shows the subaltern role of international migrant workers in different agro-pastoral systems and examines how stockbreeders utilise the ‘good worker’ rhetoric for controlling and maintaining the migrant shepherds’ subordinate position.