‘In-between’ strawberries and reproductive justice

By Nora Komposch, University of Bern, Carolin Schurr, University of Bern, Angels Escriva, University of Huelva

From December until the summer months, fresh strawberries from Huelva, Spain can be found in supermarkets across Europe. While eating berries has become part of the everyday lives of many consumers, and media reports increasingly focus on the devastating ecological impacts of the highly industrialised berry sector, the stories of those who work in the fields often go untold. Who are these workers who temporarily migrate from Morocco to Huelva every year to work in Europe’s berry chamber? What are their main concerns apart from paid work? And how are their intimate and reproductive lives linked to berry picking in Huelva?

Mothers for berry production

Berry production in Spain is a labour-intensive industry that for decades has required the recruitment of large numbers of seasonal foreign workers to work alongside local workers. Around half of the approximately 100,000 workers employed in the Andalusian berry industry each year are migrant workers from Eastern European, Latin American or African countries, and many of them are women. As in many other low-paid sectors, the myth that women have more delicate hands (which makes them preferable to men for berry picking) has shaped the discourse of gendered labour selection. Furthermore, the bilateral recruitment regime between Spain and Morocco only grants work visas to women with children. This labour migration regime is designed to ensure that workers return home at the end of the harvest season because of their caring responsibilities and family ties. Moroccan women who choose to work in Huelva therefore leave their children with relatives in Morocco to participate in this wage labour. This gendered and demographic recruitment strategy means that care and reproductive health are key issues in the lives of migrant mothers.

Being ‘in-between’ Morocco and Spain

Drawing on Nora Komposch’s long-term, multi-sited ethnographic research in Spain and Morocco, we highlight the link between reproductive justice and labour migration regimes by analysing the impact of this bilateral labour regime between Spain and Morocco on the intimate lives of migrant workers. We argue that the geopolitical prescriptions of this labour migration regime, together with the working and living conditions of migrant workers in Huelva, lead to experiences of ‘intimate liminality’, a state of feeling and being ‘in-between’ two places that manifests itself at multiple scales.

At the global scale, the bilateral migration agreement between Spain and Morocco has resulted in a demographic selection policy that encourages mothers to migrate temporarily. While this agreement prevents these mothers from being physically present with their children, many of them continue to carry out part of their care work via digital media, as Aicha reports:

‘Being separated is very hard but I am in contact with my daughters every day, helping them with their homework, always via WhatsApp.’ (Aicha, agricultural worker, 2023).

Like Aicha, the long separation from family is an emotional challenge for many workers. While the Spanish government guarantees to uphold the bilateral migration agreement, it absolves itself of any commitment to the family lives and caregiving responsibilities of the migrants within their national borders. This transnational agreement demonstrates how global labour migration regimes and the intimate lives of migrants are inextricably intertwined.

At the national and regional scale, the lack of state measures to protect the health of migrant workers from pesticides shows how their lives, as transnational beings, become invisible. Furthermore, authorities are failing to provide migrant workers with the necessary infrastructure to access their rights under Spain’s universal health system. A lack of transport, health cards, translation facilities and information means that workers often forgo or delay visits to doctors. Worker Malika said:

‘If something is hurting, we just take a paracetamol. […] If you don’t know the language, it is very difficult. […] I told the company many times that I need to see a doctor, but they said: “We have a lot of work”, “we don’t have anyone to drive you and help you with the translation”. So, I couldn’t go.’ (Malika, agricultural worker, 2023).

As a result, the workers’ medical, and particularly gynaecological, needs are structurally made invisible. Such examples show how this liminal state of being in-between two places is manifested through policies of neglect and a lack of facilities and resources.

At the local scale, the harsh conditions of transnational labour regimes can be altered and challenged through worker’s everyday practices of contestation. Through self-organised health care, mutual support and political action with grassroots organisations, workers can raise their voices and step out of this structural invisibility.

‘We asked for workers, but human beings came’ (Max Frisch)

This quote by the Swiss novelist Max Frisch refers to his observations regarding the guest-worker-recruitment regime in Switzerland during the economic boom of the time of post-World War II. As Frisch already observed back then in Switzerland, migrant workers are frequently reduced to their productive labour without considering other aspects of their human life. Similar processes are happening in Huelva today. A transnational labour migration regime that exploits workers’ family ties to achieve nation-states’ goals of preventing permanent migration neglects migrant workers’ basic human needs, such as living a decent family life and access to healthcare. Migrant workers, however, also contest and redefine such precarious conditions. Mapping responsibility for maintaining the status quo helps to direct criticism of inhumane living and working conditions to the appropriate level. Exploring the spaces of resistance makes visible the agency of the actors struggling against these policies.

About the authors: Nora Komposch works as a PhD candidate and an assistant in social and cultural geography at the University of Bern. In her research on Huelva’s berry industry, she explores the links between agricultural labour migration, workers’ care and health conditions, and global warming. Carolin Schurr is Professor in social and cultural geography at the University of Bern. Angels Escriva is Professor in Sociology at the University of Huelva.

How to Cite

Komposch, N., Schurr, C., Escriva, A. (2024, June) ‘In-between’ strawberries and reproductive justice. Geography Directions. https://doi.org/10.55203/DCUL8266