{"id":5972,"date":"2024-12-19T17:51:28","date_gmt":"2024-12-19T16:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/?p=5972"},"modified":"2024-12-19T17:51:28","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T16:51:28","slug":"lets-not-criminalize-gangmasters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/en\/2024\/12\/19\/lets-not-criminalize-gangmasters\/","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s Not Criminalize Gangmasters"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fight against illegal gangmaster practices in Italy is based on the idea that organized crime is always behind this phenomenon. However, a closer look into the ghettos of agricultural laborers reveals a different reality: the gangmaster is often a compatriot of the exploited workers, sharing their marginality and poverty. This intermediary provides a valuable service in matching labor supply with demand within the tight timeframes of the harvest season.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The topic of combating illegal gangmaster practices periodically resurfaces in the media and public debates, usually following tragic events. Such was the case with the death of Satnam Singh, a 31-year-old Punjabi agricultural worker who died in the province of Latina on June 19, 2024. He lost his arm in a workplace accident and was abandoned without care by his employer, for whom he was working without a contract at the time of the incident (as covered in the August issue of <\/span>eco<\/span><\/i>, editor\u2019s note).<\/span><\/p>\n

For Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, this was \u201can inhumane act that does not represent the Italian people\u201d and a result of the \u201cscourge of illegal gangmaster practices.\u201d Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida described the perpetrator as \u201ca criminal masquerading as an entrepreneur.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

These statements align with the narrative employed by Italian governments across the political spectrum, which frames illegal gangmaster practices as an issue confined to pockets of the agri-food sector controlled by organized crime. This perspective is often accompanied by the erroneous assumption that the immigrant workers involved are always undocumented. This interpretation has shaped the policy responses to the phenomenon thus far.<\/span><\/p>\n

Different Forms of Gangmaster Practices<\/b><\/h3>\n

In its narrowest definition, illegal gangmaster practices involve informal recruitment and organization of labor. An intermediary is responsible for recruiting, transporting, and overseeing teams of workers on behalf of employers. This mediation often comes with exploitative practices such as imposing exhausting work schedules, threats, physical abuse, and withholding part of workers\u2019 wages.<\/span><\/p>\n

More recently, illegal gangmaster practices have been framed as a broader \u201csystem\u201d of exploitation that includes the segregation of foreign-born laborers in isolated locations, living in squalid conditions with restricted freedom of movement.<\/span><\/p>\n

To combat this phenomenon, Italy introduced the crime of illegal gangmastering in 2011, imposing severe criminal penalties on intermediaries and employers responsible for exploitation. The legislation is based on the assumption that such practices arise from organized crime involved in human trafficking. While the role of organized crime is well-documented in many cases, including the Latina area where June\u2019s crime occurred, illegal gangmastering is a far broader phenomenon. Its causes go beyond the coercive actions of organized crime, demanding active state intervention to create an infrastructure that can replace informal intermediation.<\/span><\/p>\n

In settings where criminal organizations have little direct control over workers, such as the ghettos, some laborers become gangmasters themselves, engaging in informal entrepreneurship. Other laborers turn to them to address the difficulties of finding and accessing work.<\/span><\/p>\n

Historical Roots of the Phenomenon<\/b><\/h3>\n

Illegal gangmastering is neither a recent phenomenon nor one exclusively tied to immigrant labor; it began with industrialized agriculture. References to gangmaster practices can be found in the Jacini Inquiry (1877\u20131886), the first major investigation into the conditions of Italian agriculture conducted by Parliament after unification.<\/span><\/p>\n

The phenomenon is not uniquely Italian or even limited to southern Italy. Studies of 1950s agriculture in California describe similar intermediation practices, as do more recent investigations into the organization (and often exploitation) of agricultural labor in OECD countries.<\/span><\/p>\n

Economic studies highlight how gangmasters address fundamental problems in a market characterized by short-term contracts requiring low technical skills, coupled with a high turnover among a large pool of workers. Employers often lack the resources to select and oversee workers effectively. Informal intermediaries like gangmasters offer a partial solution, albeit with practices that involve coercive oversight through threats and, at times, violence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gangmasters can also quickly recruit teams of laborers when crops reach maturity, transporting them from remote areas poorly served by public transit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fieldwork Insights<\/b><\/h3>\n

Between 2015 and 2017, I conducted field research in the so-called ghettos of African laborers, focusing on eight of the largest settlements in Italy. I lived for about six months in Borgo Mezzanone, in the settlement nicknamed \u201cGran Ghetto,\u201d in the countryside north of Foggia. I collected ethnographic data on how this parallel society operates and gathered hundreds of testimonies.<\/span><\/p>\n

These informal settlements consist of makeshift huts built from wood, cardboard, and plastic. They emerged in the 1980s in various agricultural regions of Italy, initially as temporary housing for migrant workers during the harvest season. Over time, these settlements became permanent shantytowns inhabited year-round.<\/span><\/p>\n

The name \u201cghetto,\u201d coined by the early inhabitants, reflects the isolation, ethnic segregation, and lack of services (such as running water, sewage systems, and electricity) that characterize these areas. Typically hidden in remote rural locations far from the nearest towns, these ghettos are inhabited exclusively by immigrants, mostly from West African countries such as Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Mali, and Senegal. Borgo Mezzanone, one of Italy\u2019s largest ghettos, occupies a former military airstrip near the eponymous rural hamlet in the province of Foggia and is home to thousands of people, predominantly working-age men.<\/span><\/p>\n

My research, based on 465 surveys, sought to understand how immigrants excluded from mainstream society devise survival strategies and decide whether to pursue greater integration or retreat into permanent ghetto life. The data also provided deeper insights into the world of gangmaster practices, exploring why most ghetto residents (71% of the sample) seek agricultural work through intermediaries and how the remaining 29% manage to find it independently.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Entrepreneurial Risks of Gangmasters<\/b><\/h3>\n

In the ghettos, the role of the gangmaster is typically filled by an immigrant of the same nationality as the workers. Gangmasters live within the ghettos and share the same conditions of extreme marginality and poverty. Often, they are or have been laborers themselves. After saving enough to buy a car or a dilapidated van (a few hundred euros in the informal ghetto economy), they become gangmasters, connecting farmers with workers recruited from their fellow residents.<\/span><\/p>\n

Starting a gangmaster operation entails various risks, including being caught by the police for driving without documentation or licenses and being charged with the crime of illegal gangmastering. Part of the job also involves ensuring that employers pay the laborers after the harvest. Without contractual protections, if an employer refuses to pay, the workers may retaliate against the gangmaster, even physically. In exchange for taking on these risks, gangmasters earn a share of the workers\u2019 daily wages, covering transportation costs and pocketing a portion of the earnings per crate of harvested produce.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finding Work Without Intermediaries<\/b><\/h3>\n

Those who can afford to search for work without resorting to gangmasters tend to have spent more years in Italy, learned to communicate in Italian, or obtained a valid residence permit\u2014a far more common status than assumed (77% of the sample had one). However, the most significant predictor of independent job searches is having accumulated work experience in the area.<\/span><\/p>\n

Interviewees\u2019 accounts reveal that finding work independently requires extensive effort to build contacts across a vast territory with little public transport, incompatible with the tight harvest schedules and limited financial resources of laborers. Moreover, the state-run employment centers that should connect laborers with agricultural employers are virtually non-existent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both the time spent job hunting and the risks associated with unprotected employment outside the gangmaster system diminish with the establishment of trust-based relationships with employers and the accumulation of experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/b><\/h3>\n

Observing life in the ghettos suggests strategies very different from those pursued by current anti-gangmaster policies. Organized crime plays a minimal role in these areas, exerting little direct control. Measures must extend beyond criminal and legal penalties for intermediaries and employers. Illegal gangmastering is an informal institution that leaves workers vulnerable to constant exploitation. For those living in ghettos, relying on a gangmaster remains the most effective way to find work quickly and maximize earnings during the harvest season. To dismantle this mechanism, it is essential to create legal infrastructures capable of connecting laborers and employers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Simone Cremaschi is a postdoctoral researcher in political sociology at the Dondena Research Center at Bocconi University. His PhD dissertation, completed at the European University Institute, won the 2021 IMISCOE Maria Baganha Award for the best thesis on migration, integration, and social cohesion in Europe.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The fight against illegal gangmaster practices in Italy is based on the idea that organized crime is always behind this phenomenon. 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