‘There will be no law,or people to protect us’: Irregular Southeast Asian seasonal workers in Taiwan before and during the pandemic

This paper investigates the everyday lived realities of Southeast Asian migrant workers who left the formal sector of the labour market and entered the informal agricultural sector before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan. Drawing on observations of migrants' daily lives and farm work and 19 in-depth interviews, it delves into migrants' subjective experiences of vulnerability, paternalism, exploitation, and control at work due to a lack of legal protection and the illegality of their employment. Although the literature has identified a link between ‘running away’ from formal employment and seeking freedom, this research suggests a continuum between experiences of work in the formal and informal economic sectors. The paper sheds new light on mobility, work, illegality, and informality and how these have constantly shaped ‘runaway’ workers' subjective experiences of freedom and unfreedom during the pandemic.     

Discipline and resistance in southwestern Ontario: Securitization of migrant workers and their acts of defiance

COVID-19 has had deep impacts on a wide range of vulnerable communities in Canada. Migrant agricultural workers in the southwestern region of Ontario were particularly impacted. Fearing the threat of the ‘racialized foreign other’, the Canadian state produced myriad securitization responses with heightened surveillance. This paper will examine both state and non-state forms of securitization and the response from both workers and activists such as the advocacy group Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW). While there has been ample discussion of how vulnerable migrant agricultural workers were affected during the pandemic, there has been less attention paid to how state policies have heightened and targeted specific groups such as migrant agricultural workers through modes of securitization. Central to this was to ensure that labour needs would be met to ensure the viability of Canada's multi-billion agricultural industry. This paper shows how securitization and control were vital to ensure no disruptions to production levels and Canada's role as a leading agricultural export producer.     

Amplifying invisibility: COVID-19 and Zimbabwean migrant farm workers in South Africa

How does the COVID-19 pandemic impact migrant worker visibility? This paper examines how the pandemic underscores the invisibility of Zimbabwean migrant farm workers employed at ZZ2, one of the largest commercial farms in South Africa. I argue that Zimbabweans are made invisible in three ways. First, employer and state restrictions on mobility, alongside rising xenophobia in South Africa, leave migrant workers hyper-visible to ZZ2 management, yet invisible to most people outside the farm. Second, ZZ2 avoids discussion of its migrant workforce in public forums, even as it faces increased scrutiny for its treatment of its workers during the pandemic. Third, the most prominent critic of ZZ2—the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF)—grants migrant workers only a partial visibility as undifferentiated foreigners with no voice, a construction that ultimately maintains their invisibility at the company. Taken together, these interlocking forms of invisibilization diminish the structural and associational power of workers.     

COVID-19 and the power of indigenous,Mexican-origin farmworker families in the US Pacific Northwest

Over the last several years—in the context of US political upheaval, ongoing crises related to climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and an economic downturn—indigenous, Mexican-origin farmworker families in Washington State have engaged more intensely in class struggle through acts of solidarity and forms of collective action, in part through independent labour unions, worker cooperatives and mutual aid. This article chronicles the labour struggles that led to a notion of class rooted in family units of production and that strengthened transnational solidarity in resistance to racist forms of exploitation in the agricultural sector. Class organization rooted in family and solidarity has allowed indigenous agricultural workers in Washington State to face COVID-19 and incidents driven by climate change, which syndemically compounded existing community health crises, from a place of power. Focusing on the experience of farmworker families in Washington State, I outline agricultural employers' exploitation of workers during this period of increased vulnerability and the strength of farmworkers' resolve to take their health and well-being into their own hands.     

Essential agriculture,sacrificial labor,and the COVID-19 pandemic in the US South

As farmworkers were reframed as “essential” workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, US growers demanded unfettered access to foreign farm labor. After initially announcing a freeze on all immigration processing, the Trump administration bowed to farmers' demands, granting a single exception for agricultural guestworkers under the H-2A visa program. Through a focus on H-2A farmworkers in Georgia, this paper highlights how the pandemic exacerbated farm labor conditions in the US South. The author interrogates these conditions through the lens of racial capitalism, exposing the legacies of plantation political economies and a longstanding agricultural labor system premised on devaluing racialized labor. These histories are obscured by the myth of agricultural exceptionalism—the idea that agriculture is too different and important to be subject to the same rules and regulations as other industries. Agricultural exceptionalism naturalizes the racial capitalist system and informs state responses that privilege agricultural production through the exploitation of farmworkers, remaking “essential” farmworkers as sacrificial labor.     

Migrant Agricultural Workers in Local and Global Contexts: Toward a Better Life?

Four books published between 2013 and 2014 make a vital contribution towards understanding the political and ideological tools by which states and employers construct hyper‐exploitable agricultural workers. In this review essay, we provide an assessment of how these books have advanced our understandings of migrant farm labour regimes in local and international perspectives. After presenting a synopsis of each text, we critically reflect on key lessons learned, offer questions that merit further attention, and suggest directions for future research. Our review finds that despite wide differences in geopolitical and legal contexts in which migrant agricultural workers cross borders, live and work, there are remarkable resemblances in the ways in which states use (and abuse) migrant labour. Likewise, there are glaring similarities in the consequent vulnerabilities migrants experience. While each author provides compelling and empirically rich observations based on local fields of study, generally lacking are broader global connections and policy discussions about how the problems raised can be meaningfully addressed. Given the seeming ubiquity of exploitative migrant agricultural worker regimes, the fundamental question left largely unanswered is: Must ‘local’ agricultural systems depend on vulnerable imported workers in order to provide affordable food for consumers, or are there workable alternatives to this arrangement?     

Temporariness made interminable: Pacific Islander farmworkers in Australia and the enduring crises of global agricultural production

Drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork with Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP) workers in south-east Australia, I reflect in this paper on the experience of interminable temporariness and on its implications for the structural conditions underpinning contemporary horticultural labour in Australia. Although in many ways reflective of the specificities of a unique historical moment, the interminable temporariness experienced through the COVID-19 pandemic also speaks to broader, enduring conditions produced within contemporary Australian agriculture. Here, the restructuring of the agri-industry produces for many what Lauren Berlant describes as the “impasse” or “crisis ordinariness” of life under neoliberalism. At the same time, logics of development—including racialized imaginaries and border regimes—articulate with agricultural guest worker schemes in ways that seek to fix whole populations and regions in relations of suspended hope. In this context, I argue, the pandemic exposed and intensified structural vulnerabilities and unequal distributions of risk, which are encoded in the political economy of farm work in Australia, while also cleaving open new, if tentative, possibilities for agency and solidarity.     

Commercial Farm Workers and the Politics of (Dis)placement in Zimbabwe: Colonialism, Liberation and Democracy

The widespread land occupations of 2000 demonstrate the uneasy fit of commercial farm workers within the politics and development of Zimbabwe. Not only have farm workers borne the most violence at the hands of land occupiers, but their current socio-political situation on predominantly white-owned commercial farms has either been reduced by a nationalist liberation war binary of exploitation/abuse by racist white settlers or totally elided through human rights and democracy discourses anchored in the liberal subject. Based on periodic fieldwork research with commercial farm workers from 1992 to 2000, this paper analyses how farm workers have been represented by the various public actors during the current land occupations and the complex ways some farm workers have responded to these events. The emphasis is on how political actors need to rethink the situation of commercial farm workers if they are to take an active role in the improvement of their living and working lives.     

人力资本、社会资本与农民工返乡创业政府支持的可获性研究——基于江西1145份调查数据

本文利用1145份返乡农民工数据,运用多元有序Logistic模型实证分析了人力资本和社会资本对农民工返乡创业获取政府支持的影响。研究表明,农民工年龄、文化程度及职业技能状况等人力资本是影响农民工返乡创业获取政府支持的重要因素,话费支出、常联系朋友个数和可借款人数等弱关系网络对农民工获取政府支持有重要影响,而配偶及兄弟姐妹等强关系网络反而影响不大,家庭人均纯收入的高低也是影响农民工获取政府支持的主要因素。     

后新冠疫情下我国农业农村数字经济发展问题、趋势与对策

目的 随着互联网与大数据的发展,我国数字经济融合技术、经济和产业于一体,有力助推供给侧结构性改革,同时也为防控疫情、保障经济社会各方面的有效运转提供有力支撑,但在非网民规模巨大的农村地区,数字经济发展相对滞后。在此次新冠疫情冲击之后,数字经济在促进农村劳动者就业、推动农业农村产业转型升级等方面将发挥重要作用。为了进一步优化农业生产结构和农村区域布局,文章主要围绕我国农业农村如何更好地应对疫情对农产品供应链体系带来的挑战,以及疫情后农业农村数字经济的加快发展等一系列问题展开探讨。方法 运用文献研究法,通过调查与农村农业数字经济相关的文献和数据获得研究资料,从而全面地、正确地了解新冠疫情对农业农村的影响。结果 该文在分析农业农村数字经济发展机遇及存在问题的基础上,探讨疫情后农业农村数字经济的发展趋势：（1）农业农村数字经济由增量向增质转变;（2）农业农村数字经济由供给端向需求端转变;（3）农业农村数字经济由单一向多元发展转变;（4）农业农村数字经济由自由分散经营向规范化与规模化转变。结论 在此基础上,提出促进我国农业农村数字经济平稳快速发展的主要建议：（1）保证农业农村数字经济基础设施高水平供给;（2）重视物流配送、商流组织等“软”性要素;（3）大力推进数字技术与农业农村的深度融合;（4）加强农业农村数字经济领域的人才培养;（5）加强农业农村数字经济法律法规建设。农业农村可以通过数字化技术克服空间障碍,为更多的消费者提供服务,使数字经济成为农村农业升级的强大动力。     

Labor issues and COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted Canada and several other countries to impose an economic shutdown to prevent a deadly public health crisis from becoming much deadlier. In the agriculture and food sector, several hundred thousand restaurant workers have lost their jobs. The rise in unemployment, the closing of restaurants and schools, and social distancing have triggered demand reductions for certain commodities and foods and demand increases for others, bringing along changes in demand for inputs including labor. Canadian employers of temporary foreign workers (TFWs) are facing delays and additional constraints in recruiting, but so have US and European employers of TFWs. Rising food security concerns are making protectionist trade policies popular. Domestic and foreign firms may export less and do more foreign direct investment, inducing trade in jobs.     

新冠肺炎疫情对2020年农业农村发展的影响评估与应对建议

由于种养业季节性强、农民工流动性大、农村防护条件差,疫情对农业农村发展的影响具有全面性和持久性。研究显示,疫情防控导致的物流中断,家禽养殖企业遭遇生存危机,导致短期肉价下跌和2020年肉类供需紧张局面加剧;果蔬滞销、粮食销售延迟以及部分农产品消费抑制,将使相当部分种植户2020年收益面临下滑;疫情期间的延期复工和疫情后的长期停工会导致农民工就业人数下降205万人至351.1万人,2020年农民工人均工资收入名义增长速度可能将下降1.45至2.46个百分点。综合考虑疫情对各项收入来源的影响,2020年农村居民人均可支配收入名义增长速度可能将下降2.59至3.59个百分点。因此,应加紧建立应急储备和加大供需调节力度,以补贴和政策性信贷支持引导龙头企业帮助小农户度过难关,加大对农民工再就业培训和返乡创业的支持,多渠道稳定农民收入。     

2020年农民增收:新冠肺炎疫情的影响与应对建议

新冠肺炎疫情将从多个渠道、多重方式对今年农民增收带来严重冲击,其中对工资性收入影响尤为突出。疫情在全球加速扩散,对全球经济贸易增长冲击严重,通过全球供应链影响我国产业经营和农民就业,今年后期农民持续增收挑战巨大。本文认为必须统筹疫情防控和经济社会发展两线作战;加快中小企业复工复产,实施文化旅游产业振兴,加大创新创业支持,恢复和稳定农民就业增收;创新农产品产销对接,实施产业提升工程,提升风险治理能力,稳住和促进农业经营增收;加强国际疫情研判,抓紧做好防范应对,稳住农民增收基础。要对标问题、攻坚克难、系统发力,通过一揽子政策助力农民持续增收,力争如期实现全面建成小康社会和全面打赢脱贫攻坚战目标。     

乡村振兴背景下农民工迁移决策机理研究

目的 乡村振兴离不开农民参与，农民工作为农民群体的一部分，分析其迁移决策的形成机制并给予合理的行为引导是乡村振兴战略实施的现实需要。方法 文章以计划行为理论为基础建立农民工迁移决策分析框架，结合实地调研数据，运用结构方程模型的方法，剖析农民工迁移决策的形成过程与各节点关键影响因素。结果 （1）反映社会压力的主观规范与反映农民工自身喜好程度的行为态度之间存在相互影响关系，反映农民工迁移阻碍的知觉行为控制与主观规范、行为态度之间影响较弱，农民工迁移意愿主要受行为态度与知觉行为控制影响。（2）来自农村社会的意见是农民工迁移决策过程中社会压力的主要来源，经济与福利因素是影响农民工行为态度的主要因素，而工作信息传导不畅、城镇生活保障缺失等则是农民工迁移的主要障碍。结论 未来应以产业布局为抓手，充分发挥各级政府与村委会的影响作用，对农民工迁移行为进行合理引导。     

新生代农民工政党认同问题研究

新生代农民工是我国近年来出现的数量庞大的新社会群体,这个群体的政党认同状况,对党的群众基础和执政基础有着直接的影响。我们应该认真审视存在的特点和问题,探究影响因素,并致力于寻求增强新生代农民工政党认同的正确路径。     

农民工转移就业对农村居民收入的影响及其空间溢出效应

目的 农民工作为农村人口的重要组成部分,其转移就业问题一直被各界高度关注。文章利用2011—2021我国31个省（市、区,未含香港、澳门和台湾省）的空间面板数据,探究农民工转移就业对农村居民收入的影响及其空间溢出效应。方法 结合前人研究成果和理论基础,分析农民工转移就业对农村居民收入的影响机制,通过莫兰检验验证农民工转移就业和农村居民收入空间相关性之后,再选取固定效应空间杜宾模型进行实证分析,并通过3种空间矩阵检验结果的稳健性。结果 （1） 发现农民工转移就业和农村居民收入具有明显的L—L、H—H集聚的空间特征,空间相关性显著;（2） 农民工转移就业与农村居民收入空间交互效应也显著;农民工转移就业对农村居民收入有显著的正向影响;（3） 农民工转移就业对农村居民收入具有显著的空间溢出效应。结论 重视农民工转移就业的空间溢出效应,进一步提高农民工受教育程度,加快农民工市民化进程,可促进农民工转移就业,进而有效提升农村居民收入水平。     

新生代农民工市民化背景下我国城市基层社区文化建设——基于泉州地区外来务工人员精神文化生活调研分析

新生代农民工作为城市的一个特殊群体,长期以来,被人们忽视,成为城市的边缘群体。他们的精神文化需求没地方倾诉,城市社区文化建设也没有开展一些针对他们的活动。文章主要结合调研数据,真实地反映出当前新生代农民工的精神生活现状、精神诉求和当前社区文化建设存在的问题,探索当前我国城市社区文化建设的有效途径。     

代际视角下进城女性农民工留城意愿研究——基于成都市的实证分析

[目的]基于对成都市女性农民工的实地调查数据,探究代际视角下女性农民工的留城意愿及其影响因素,以期为山区劳动力转移及促进山区人口市民化提供科学参考。[方法]通过调查成都市女性农民工的年龄、受教育程度、婚姻状况等数据,构建二元Logistic回归模型进行实证分析。[结果]新生代女性农民工比老一代农民工更倾向于留在城市,有6岁以下小孩对新生代女性农民工留城有负向影响,但有6岁以下小孩对老一代农民工留城有正向影响。[结论]对女性农民工整体而言,随着受教育程度的增高,留城意愿增长趋势越显著;有融入城市信心的女性农民工更倾向于留在城市。     

THE ECONOMIC POLITY OF FARM POLICY

A review of the ‘new political economy’ of agricultural policies includes models of social income maximising governments, collective action by ‘pressure groups’, and the interaction between politicians and voters. An alternative explanation for Olson's “social by-product” theory for why farmers received massive subsidies as a large group is also presented. An explanation for various patterns of farm policy interventions is given, including why rich countries subsidise and poor countries tax farmers. Finally, the role of public research expenditures and the interaction with commodity policy is explored.     

新生代农民工工作家庭冲突对工作绩效的影响——基于组织支持感的调节作用

新生代农民工的工作家庭冲突问题是这一群体在逐渐发展事业和建立家庭的过程中面临的一个重要的社会问题。本文从角色冲突与补偿理论的视角出发,运用实证研究和文献研究的方法,对比第一代农民工性格特征的差异之处,揭示不同工作与生活状态下的湖北新生代农民工工作家庭冲突的特点,具体展现其冲突的产生对工作绩效的影响机制,为企业对新生代农民工进行有针对性的管理提供可参考性的对策和机制,为企业的和谐关系建立以及员工的职业发展另辟一条蹊径。