Sfruttamento lavorativo e vulnerabilità in un’ottica di genere. Le condizioni di vita e di lavoro delle lavoratrici migranti nelle serre del Ragusano

By focusing on the specific case of migrant women workers employed in the greenhouses of Ragusa, this article highlights the interplay of factors creating and exacerbating the situations of vulnerability of migrant women farmworkers to dynamics of exploitation. The article argues that looking at exploitation from a gender and intersectional perspective means going beyond the dichotomies (e.g. exploitation vs. consent) produced by legal and policy discourses and considering its systemic nature in a context marked by structural inequalities and injustices. Building on a theoretical framework attentive to the complexity of exploitation and the “situational” dimension of vulnerability, the article underlines how feminist analyses on the issue of social reproduction are fundamental to understanding forms of exploitation that are based on the specific situations of vulnerability in which women workers find themselves. The article concludes by stressing the need for legal and policy interventions which address exploitation in its systemic dimension, going beyond criminal law responses and putting the rights and needs of migrant women workers at the centre.