‘Ştiu eu pe cineva’. Self-organised mobility, labour intermediation and the two-fold exploitation of Romanian workers in the Austrian fresh food sector
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E-Artikel
Titel:
‘Ştiu eu pe cineva’. Self-organised mobility, labour intermediation and the two-fold exploitation of Romanian workers in the Austrian fresh food sector
Beschreibung:
The workings of Romanian migration networks across western Europe are well documented. Yet, transnational relations have rarely been examined outside of these networks, namely in their potential for value extraction in broader accumulation processes. This article looks at the self-organised mobility of Romanian workers in relation to exploitation in highly segmented labour markets, and substantiates the view that, in the Austrian fresh food sector, it is that self-organised mobility that has become exploitable by Austrian growers. The article shows how growers capitalise particularly on labour intermediation to maintain the resilience and profitability of local agricultural businesses in the Austrian agricultural market. The resulting workplace regime ensnares workers in a two-fold exploitability: not only is their labour power subject to labour extraction but so are their interpersonal relations. This analysis implies the need to move beyond commonplace vocabularies of ‘social capital’ to grasp the persistent exploitation of migrant workers and their reproductive capacities across segmented labour markets.