Les travailleurs détachés dans l’agriculture provençale

Abstract

This article focuses on EU-authorised migrant workers employed in intensive farming activities, based on the example of Latin American labourers whom Spanish temporary employment agencies have made available to French Provence region market gardeners and arboriculturists. Through this case study, the article analyses how this kind of secondment works on a day-to-day basis, involving as it does mobility control and labour cost-cutting strategies based on an externalisation of risks to international service providers and requiring both flexibility and availability on the part of the people concerned. Lastly, the paper also shows how secondment has led to other forms of mobility, spawning an on-location Latin American community that further accentuates the Provençal region farmworker market’s ethnic and statutory segmentation.