ABSTRACT

Migrants are at risk globally to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we focus on migrant agricultural workers in Capitanata, Apulia, Southern Italy. The concept of vulnerability provides our entry point. We distinguish between structural and systemic vulnerability to capture the interplay between the two during crisis situations. Structural vulnerability is limited to a certain system domain whereas systemic vulnerability has potential to create effects on a variety of interconnected systems. Informed by stakeholder interviews and documentary analysis, we elaborate a framework that accounts for how long-standing structural vulnerabilities have interacted with the COVID-19 crisis to produce adverse outcomes for migrant agricultural workers, while exposing the vulnerability of three linked systems – agricultural labour market, migration and asylum and healthcare. We take account, however, of pre-existing interventions which may mitigate the impact of systemic vulnerability and of the ‘policy window’ opened by cognisance of the possible systemic failures derived from the systemic vulnerability. While the article makes an early empirical contribution to understanding one group of migrants’ vulnerability during the pandemic and the ensuing governance responses, the analytical framework developed has applicability beyond this particular group of migrants and this particular crisis, and may provide a useful tool for further research.

摘要

移民在全球范围内面临着COVID-19大流行的危险。在这里，我们重点关注意大利南部普利亚大区卡皮塔纳塔（Capitanata）的农民工。漏洞的概念提供了我们的切入点。我们区分结构性和系统性捕获危机情况下两者之间相互作用的脆弱性。结构性漏洞仅限于某个系统域，而系统性漏洞则有可能对各种互连系统产生影响。在利益相关者访谈和文献分析的指导下，我们制定了一个框架，该框架说明了长期存在的结构性漏洞与COVID-19危机如何相互作用，从而给农民工带来了不利的后果，同时揭示了三个相关系统（农业劳动力市场）的脆弱性，移民，庇护和医疗保健。但是，我们考虑到可能减轻系统脆弱性影响的现有干预措施，以及考虑到由系统脆弱性引起的可能的系统故障而打开的“政策窗口”。