Immigration and integration in rural areas and the agriculture sector: An EU perspective

Immigrants in rural areas have been extensively studied in case studies and from a variety of disciplines, but we currently lack a bird’s eye view of immigrants’ population and integration patterns in EU rural areas covering all 28 member states over time. This paper tackles that gap by, first, describing the main features of immigration settlement, and labour and social integration in rural areas. Second, it investigates empirically the degree to which different characteristics of agricultural production in two member states – Italy and Spain – are associated with concentration in immigrant population. The paper finds that, in the context of an overall shrinking labour force in agriculture, the share of migrant workers in that sector in some countries and specific regions is actually increasing over time. Unsurprisingly, compared to natives, immigrants employed in agriculture coming from either within or outside the EU are more likely to work in elementary occupations and temporary jobs. In terms of social integration, we register that, over time, the at-risk-of-poverty indicator is worsening for both EU- and non-EU born immigrants in rural areas. Finally, the typology of agricultural land use and labour intensity of cultivation are found to be related to the relative size of immigrant population in the cases of Italy and Spain.

KALANTARYAN Sona;  SCIPIONI Marco;  NATALE Fabrizio;  ALESSANDRINI Alfredo; 

2022-08-23

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

JRC119566

0743-0167 (online),   

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0743016721001170?via%3Dihub,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC119566,   

10.1016/j.jrurstud.2021.04.017 (online),