Romanian migrant labourers and resettlement: the seasonal agricultural market

Abstract

Abstract This paper focuses on seasonal agricultural labour as part of transnational migration based on empirical research. It presents the effects of Romanian labour market migration on creating networks for seasonal labourers’ mobility, on the transformation of the ethnic and social composition of the labour force, as well as on the differentiation and weakening of networks. The survival of networks has stabilized since the 1990s. This can be traced back to the transformation of their selection mechanisms and the variety of ways employed to retain those workers that were capable of integrating into the work organisation. Producers experiencing labour force shortages have no control over workers in unstable networks, thus the selection of valuable employees continues. The number of migrant seasonal workers has declined since 2000, and the erosion of networks is inevitable. However, Romanian day-labourers are still important actors in regions suffering from labour force shortage. Keywords: agricultural employment, migration, agricultural seasonal work, patron-client, Roma