Gli immigrati nell’agricoltura trentina. Incrinatura di un modello, tra trasformazioni del reclutamento e tendenze alla “rifugizzazione”

Apples cultivation is one of the most important economic activities in Trentino, responsible for 25% of Italian apple production and 4% of European one. Such production is structurally based on migrant work, especially from eastern EU countries. This model begun to jam due to the redesign of the trajectories of EU migrant workers, who remain in their country of origin or move towards central European countries, where they find better wage conditions; and the inadequacy of national migration policies, which make it difficult for employers to recruit migrant workers. Thus, employers started to recruit refugees and asylum seekers, from sub-Saharan and Indian subcontinent countries, arrived in Trentino in recent years. This paper analyses these transformations and the process of “refugeeization” of agricultural workforce and partial replacement of seasonal workers, in Trentino. Subsequently, it focuses on the impact of the pandemic on international recruitment and organization of the migrant workforce.