{"id":4562,"date":"2024-10-07T21:28:20","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T19:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/?p=4562"},"modified":"2024-10-07T21:28:55","modified_gmt":"2024-10-07T19:28:55","slug":"satnam-singh-the-death-of-an-invisible-worker-in-black-market-agriculture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/en\/2024\/10\/07\/satnam-singh-the-death-of-an-invisible-worker-in-black-market-agriculture\/","title":{"rendered":"Satnam Singh: The Death of an Invisible Worker in Black Market Agriculture"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this tragic incident in Latina, several elements intersect: workplace safety issues, the widespread nature of irregular work in the agricultural sector, and the presence in Italy of an “army of invisibles,” often exploited and without rights. But what stands out most is the dehumanisation of irregular immigrants, evident from some of the comments made.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

On June 19, Satnam Singh passed away. Death always demands a respectful silence. In the face of this death, however, silence is not an option.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Incident<\/b><\/h3>\n

The facts are sadly well-known. Satnam Singh was a 31-year-old Indian national who had been living in Italy for three years with his wife Alisha. Neither had a regular residence permit and they both worked in the fields of Agro Pontino. On June 17, while Satnam was harvesting melons on a farm, a machine severed his arm. According to witness accounts, the employer Antonello Lovato, despite the obvious severity of the situation and Alisha’s pleas to take her husband to the hospital, placed the severed arm in a fruit crate and loaded the couple into a van, abandoning them outside their home. About an hour and a half passed between the accident and Singh’s being transported to San Camillo Hospital in Rome by air ambulance. Satnam Singh died two days later. A forensic medical report concluded that with timely medical internvention he would have likely survived. On July 2, the judge of preliminary investigations in Latina issued a custody order against Antonello Lovato. After her husband’s death, Alisha was granted a residence permit on justice grounds.<\/span><\/p>\n

Workplace Safety<\/b><\/h3>\n

This tragic event intertwines numerous elements, making a logical arrangement of them impossible. A deep-seated problem of workplace safety emerges. According to data from Inail (the National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work), in the first five months of 2024, there were 369 reported fatal injuries, a 31% increase compared to the same period the previous year. In a March 2024 report, Inail notes that the incidence of fatal injuries is particularly high in the agricultural sector: 0.52% compared to 0.18% in industry and 0.04% in services. The same report also states that 25% of the victims are foreigners, with the Indian community, to which Satnam Singh belonged, having the highest number of workplace deaths. In Agro Pontino alone, there are about ten thousand Indian labourers working.<\/span><\/p>\n

Irregular Work in Agriculture<\/b><\/h3>\n

A second data point, closely related to the previous one, concerns the high rate of irregular employment in the agricultural sector. According to Inail data, between 2019 and 2021, the irregularity rate averaged around 24%, about double the overall Italian rate. Specifically, among sector employees where a significant portion of foreigners is concentrated, one in three is irregular compared to an overall employee average of 11.3%. Istat estimates that the irregularity rate (in full-time equivalent units) in “agriculture, forestry, and fishing” ranged from 38.5% in 2018 to 33.4% in 2021, second only to “other personal services.” On July 3, 2024, an extraordinary surveillance operation in the agricultural sector identified 206 irregular farms (66.45% of those inspected). Of the 2051 workers checked, 616 were irregular (30.03%): among these, 35% (216 workers) were completely off the books, and of the 786 non-EU workers, 96 worked off the books and 22 were without regular residence permits. The report states that “particularly in the province of Latina, two caravans and a room used as a dormitory were seized inside a greenhouse (…). The same inspected site generally presented serious hygienic-sanitary deficiencies in the working environments.” It’s essential to remember that irregular work encompasses various situations, ranging from partial compliance with fiscal and social security obligations to work relationships not governed by formal contracts, up to illegal activities. It goes without saying that immigrants without residence permits cannot have a regular work contract.<\/span><\/p>\n

An Army of Invisibles<\/b><\/h3>\n

Indeed, the third element of this story concerns Satnam Singh’s legal status, living and working in Italy without a regular residence permit. He was one of many among a veritable “army of invisibles.” According to the latest estimates, there are about 458,000 irregular immigrants in Italy in relation to residence permits (down from 519,000 at the beginning of 2021 due to the effects of previous regularisations). I have been studying the socio-economic integration of irregular immigrants in Italy for over twenty years. Two things I can state with certainty. Firstly, in specific situations, irregular work is associated with severe exploitation and violations of the most basic rights: unscrupulous use of gangmasters, inhumane work hours and conditions, minimal wages (in agriculture, 3.5-5 euros per hour, often piecework), coercive control forms, and total absence of basic safety measures. Their legal status makes irregular immigrants particularly vulnerable and at risk of exploitation. Secondly, irregular immigration largely escapes statistical detection, and our understanding of the phenomenon is limited. This also applies to workplace injuries, given the widespread practice of removing the worker from the accident site to avoid inspections and penalties\u2014the case of Satnam Singh is a particularly gruesome example.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Dehumanisation of Immigrants<\/b><\/h3>\n

What disturbed me most about this story is the inhumanity it reveals, exemplified by Antonello Lovato’s conduct and his father Renzo’s statements. In an interview the day after Singh’s death, Renzo attributed the incident to “carelessness” by the worker. I’ve read some statements emphasising that this is an isolated case that doesn’t represent the entire agricultural sector or the Italian people. I want to believe that’s true. I’ve also read insightful analyses on the role of the current economic model in creating a chain of exploitation that ultimately falls heaviest on small producers and, lastly, on the most vulnerable workers. A widely agreeable thesis, although the moral and criminal responsibility for complying with this system remains individual. In reality, it seems to me that the dehumanisation of some population segments, specifically irregular immigrants, is also evident in some positions taken within the media and political debate and in specific migration policy choices\u2014such as entrusting border control to third countries or certain aspects of managing sea rescue operations. I believe I can add that the creation of the irregular immigrant status itself\u2014due to the substantial impossibility of entering our country to seek work\u2014is dangerous from this perspective. I did not know Satnam Singh, it is likely that I would never have known about him, his life, and his death without the desperate courage of his wife and a colleague and friend present at the time. Thanks to their testimony, Satnam Singh, at least in death, is no longer one of the many shadows populating the army of invisibles. My thoughts go to each and every one of them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bio<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n

Carlo Devillanova is an associate professor of political economy at Bocconi University. He is affiliated with the Dondena Center, chairs the scientific committee of the Roberto Franceschi Foundation, and is a founding member of the Forum on Inequality and Diversity.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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