Agricultural Labour Regimes of Im_Mobilisation. On the Legacies of Internal and External Colonisation within Europe

Bolokan, Dina

Abstract

A large amount of those who find themselves “trapped” on farms or in food production zones in Europe come from Africa, Latin America, Asia, and “Eastern” Europe. Labour arrangements are based on differing legal statuses, but working and living conditions are almost always highly exploitative and subject to control. This chapter analyses the current labour and living conditions of the most marginalized workers in food production in Europe through a post- and decolonial reading of the differentiated regimes of im_mobilisation. These highly controlled working relations consist of formally organized regimes that come with quotas, bilateral agreements, and further bureaucratic rules and regulations. Here, the author argues that these regimes derive from both external colonization and semi-colonial power relations inside Europe. The supposedly neoliberal transformations in Europe are thus marked by power relations that date back to the mid-fifteenth century. By tracing these continuities and transformations, the text shows that current differentiated regimes of im_mobilisation must be situated within the histories of imperial Europe. This would render visible the ways in which power relations and the racialized/ethicized international division of labour evolved outside of and within imperial Europe.