Going up to France: (in)mobility, work and violence in Provençal agriculture in times of pandemic

Résumé En

The Covid 19 pandemic caused major changes in the global economy, paralysing a large part of production and revealing the importance of those sectors necessary for the reproduction of life, whose essential workers had to maintain their activity despite the danger of contagion. This article focuses on the case of Latin American day labourers in Provençal agriculture. We aim to capture the way in which part of the migrant labour force residing in Spain was expelled to the agro-industrial production enclave of the neighbouring country. To do so, we propose an analysis of labour and mobility trajectories between Spain and France. In addition to an approach to the strategies of social reproduction and the subjectivities of the social actors, this will allow us to identify dynamics of a more global and collective nature (Dombois, 1998), related to the agricultural labour market. We note that, while joining the French agricultural sector has given them access to employment and higher wages, it has also confronted them with the harsh conditions and high work rate involved in intensive agriculture. This has also weakened their positions due to a lack of knowledge of the language and the constraints of living in a highly segregated rural environment. The article seeks to explore the invisible side of essential work and to point out how these trajectories have been affected by both the material and symbolic violence that sustains the contemporary agri-food production model.