Covid-19 and labour migration: Investigating vulnerability in Italy and in the UK

Journal title QUADERNI DI ECONOMIA DEL LAVORO
Author/s Simone Baglioni, Francesca Calò, Martina Lo Cascio
Publishing Year 2021 Issue 2020/111
Language English Pages 21 P. 109-129 File size 232 KB
DOI 10.3280/QUA2020-111006
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

This article provides preliminary analyses on how the Covid-19 pandemic is affecting the labour market positions of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Italy and in Great Britain. Our research interest stems from the findings of the EU funded SIRIUS project (Skills and integration of migrants, refugees and asylum applicants in European labour markets) as well as from literature which highlight that migrants’ roles in the European labour markets are characterised by a high level of vulnerability. Such a vulnerable situation depends, on the one hand, from the juridical-legal status that migrants receive when entering the new country of settlement, a status which may limit their rights and their access to regular employment and to services conducive to decent employment such as vocational training or language learning. On the other hand, migrants’ vulnerability depends also on they being over-represented in those jobs which have been qualified as ‘front-line’, and therefore more exposed to risks of contagion during the Covid-19 pandemic, such as workers in the care, or parcel distribution sectors. Hence, this paper discusses the effect of the intertwinement of the pandemic with a status of double-vulnerability on migrants’ life.

Keywords: Labour migration, labour markets, Italy, Great Britain, Covid-pandemic.

  1. Ambrosini M. (2001). La fatica di integrarsi. Bologna: il Mulino.
  2. Baglioni S., editor (2020). Social Partners Barriers and Enablers. SIRIUS WP5 Report.
  3. Baglioni S. and Federico V., editors (2021). Migrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers’ Integration in European Labour Markets. A Comparative Approach on Legal Barriers and Enablers. Springer-IMISCOE Open Access Series.
  4. Baglioni S. and Isaakyan I., editors (2020). Integrated Report on Individual Barriers and Enablers. SIRIUS WP6 Report.
  5. Belegri-Roboli A., Michaelides P.G., Konstantakis K.N., Markaki M. and Marinos T., editors (2018). Labour Market Barriers and Enablers Comparative report on the position of post-2014 migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the labour market. SIRIUS WP1 Report.
  6. Bloch A., Kumarappan L. & Mckay S. (2015). Employer sanctions: The impact of workplace raids and fines on undocumented migrants and ethnic enclave employers. Critical Social Policy, 35(1): 132-151. -- Testo disponibile al sito: https://doi.org/10.1177/0261018314545600.
  7. Bontenbal I. and Lillie N., editors (2019). Integration of Migrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers: Policy Barriers and Enablers. SIRIUS WP3 Report.
  8. Caló F., Montgomery T. and Baglioni S. (2019). United Kingdom. In: Numerato D., Čada K. and Hoření K., editors. Civil society enablers and barriers. SIRIUS WP4 Report.
  9. Caló F., Montgomery T., Baglioni S. and Biosca, O. (2021). Regulating Fortress Britain: Migrants, Refugees and Asylum Applicants in the British Labour Market. In: Baglioni S. and Federico V., editors. Migrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers’ Integration in European Labour Markets. A Comparative Approach on Legal Barriers and Enablers. Springer-IMISCOE Open Access Series.
  10. Caruso F. and Lo Cascio M. (2020). Invisibili, ma indispensabili: l’emersione tra i braccianti del Sud Italia. In: “Forza lavoro!” E-book. Milano: Fondazioni Feltrinelli. (Forthcoming).
  11. Chiaromonte W. and Federico V. (2021). The labour market needs them but we do not want them to stay for good… the Italian conundrum of MRAA’s integration. In: Baglioni S. and Federico V., editors. Migrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers’ Integration in European Labour Markets. A Comparative Approach on Legal Barriers and Enablers. Springer-IMISCOE Open Access Series.
  12. Corrado A., Iocco G. and Lo Cascio M. (2020). Respatialization of migrations and differentiated ruralities in times of crisis in Southern Italy. In: Döner F.N., Figueiredo E., Rivera M. J., editors. Crisis, Post-Crisis and Rural Territories: Social change, challenges and opportunities in Southern and Mediterranean Europe. Berlin: Springer.
  13. Corrado A., De Castro C. and Perrotta D., editors (2016). Migration and Agriculture. Mobility and Change in the Mediterranean Area. London-New York: Routledge.
  14. Corrado A., Caruso F., Lo Cascio M., Nori M., Palumbo L. and Triandafyllidou A., editors (2018). Is Italian agriculture a “pull factor” for irregular migration-and, if so, why? Policy Briefs; Open Society, European Policy Institute Policy Brief, Report.
  15. Corrado A. and Palumbo L., editors (2020). Covid-19 agri-food systems and migrant labour. The situation in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden. European Policy Institute, Report.
  16. Creswell J. (2013). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches, 3rd Edition. London: Sage.
  17. Dines N. and Rigo E. (2015). Postcolonial citizenships between representation, borders and the ‘refugeeization’ of the workforce: critical reflections on migrant agricultural labor in the Italian Mezzogiorno. In: Ponzanesi S. and Colpani G. Postcolonial Transitions in Europe. London: Rowman and Littlefield.
  18. Direzione generale dell’immigrazione e delle politiche di integrazione, editors (2019). Gli stranieri nel mercato del lavoro in Italia. XI Rapporto annuale.
  19. Fasani F. and Mazza J. (2020). Immigrant Key Workers: Their Contribution to Europe’s COVID-19 Response. IZA Policy Paper, no. 155.
  20. Federico V., editor (2018). Legal Barriers and Enablers. Sirius WP2 Report.
  21. Geddes A. and Scholten P. (2016). Britain: The Unexpected Europeanisation of Immigration. In: The Politics of Migration and Immigration in Europe. SAGE Publications.
  22. Goffman E. (2018). Stigma. Note sulla gestione dell'identità degradata. Verona: Ombre Corte.
  23. Kopec P. and Czarnecka M. (2020). Mental health and suicides among polish men in Scotland. Counselling. Feniks, Counseling, personal evelopment and support Services. --From: https://seemescotland.org/media/9868/feniks-polish-men-in-scotland-report-2020.pdf.
  24. La Repubblica, Cronaca, 28 febbraio 2020. Coronavirus, braccianti stranieri in fuga: raccolti a rischio. -- From: https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2020/02/28/news/coronavirus_braccianti_stranieri_in_fuga_raccolti_a_rischio-249819390/
  25. Lo Cascio M. and Piro V. (2018). Ghetti e campi. La produzione istituzionale di marginalità abitativa nelle campagne siciliane. In numero monografico Processi di territorializzazione e flussi migratori. Sociologia Urbana e Rurale, 117: 12-36.
  26. Maccarrone C., Kongnews, 10 Giugno 2020. Sanatoria migranti: domande inferiori a quanto ci si aspettava. Ma per la Bellanova non è un flop. -- From: https://www.kongnews.it/politica/sanatoria-migranti-domande-inferiori-a-quanto-ci-si-aspettava-ma-per-la-bellanova-non-e-un-flop/
  27. Macrì M.C., editor (2019). Il contributo dei lavoratori stranieri all’agricoltura italiana. CREA (Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l’analisi dell’economia agraria). -- From: https://www.crea.gov.it/web/politiche-e-bioeconomia/-/on-line-il-contributo-dei-lavoratori-stranieri-all-agricoltura-italiana.
  28. Mayblin L. (2014). Asylum, welfare and work: reflections on research in asylum and refugee studies. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 34(5/6): 375-391. DOI: 10.1108/IJSSP-11-2013-0113
  29. Mayblin L. (2016). Complexity reduction and policy consensus: Asylum seekers, the right to work, and the ‘pull factor’ thesis in the UK context. The British Journal of Politics.
  30. Ministero dell’Interno. Dipartimento per le Libertà Civili e l’Immigrazione Direzione Centrale per le Politiche dell’Immigrazione e l’Asilo. Circolare Emersione 2020. -- From: https://www.interno.gov.it/sites/default/files/circolare_emersione_2020.pdf
  31. Meer N. and Villegas L. (2020). The impact of Covid-19 on global migration. WP part of the Glimer project (Governance and local integration of migrants and Europe’s refugees). -- From: http://www.glimer.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Global-Migration-Policies-and-COVID-19.pdf
  32. Mezzadra S. and Ricciardi M., editors (2013). Movimenti indisciplinati. Migrazioni, migranti e discipline scientifiche. Verona: Ombre Corte.
  33. Montgomery T. and Baglioni S. (2020). Defining the Gig Economy: platform capitalism and the reinvention of precarious work. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, DOI: 10.1108/IJSSP-08-2020-0400
  34. Numerato D., Čada K. and Hoření K., editors (2019). Civil society enablers and barriers. SIRIUS WP4 Report.
  35. OECD (2020). International Migration Outlook 2020. Paris: OECD publications.
  36. Perrotta M. (2020). Rosarno, la rivolta e dopo: Cosa è successo nelle campagne del Sud. Roma: Edizioni dell’Asino.
  37. Reyneri E., Minardi E. and Scidà G. (1997). Immigrati e lavoro in Italia. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  38. Sanò G. (2018). Fabbriche di plastica. Il lavoro nell’agricoltura industriale. Verona: Ombre corte.
  39. Spezzaferro A., Il primato nazionale, 14 Maggio 2020. Coldiretti boccia la sanatoria degli immigrati: “servono voucher e stagionali UE. -- From: https://www.ilprimatonazionale.it/primo-piano/coldiretti-boccia-sanatoria-immigrati-servono-voucher-stagionali-ue-156395/.
  40. SVIMEZ (2015). Rapporto sull’economia del Mezzogiorno. Roma: SVIMEZ.

Simone Baglioni, Francesca Calò, Martina Lo Cascio, Covid-19 and labour migration: Investigating vulnerability in Italy and in the UK in "QUADERNI DI ECONOMIA DEL LAVORO" 111/2020, pp 109-129, DOI: 10.3280/QUA2020-111006