Camps archipelago: an ethnography of migrant agricultural laborers in the potato harvesting in rural Sicily

Abstract

The presence of migrant workers in the agricultural system of Southern Italy is currently an essential element of this economic area. This increasing presence is deeply linked with the transformations occurred to agricultural markets and hence on the mode of production and distribution, not only in Italy or in Europe but at a global level. Moving from this context, the article focuses on the articulation of spaces and time of production and reproduction of the seasonal agricultural work proposing an analytical distinction according to camps, their functions, characteristics and interconnections. The research methodology highlights the threads and circulations of migrant subjectivities, in their different activities – labor, leisure, social relations – along these camps through a multi-sited ethnography which considers as a case study the seasonal potato harvest in the Siracusa area. These camps can be subdivided into four different types, based on the functions they fulfill: the 'scattered camp', the 'sanctuary', the 'plantation', the 'institutional camp'. The porosity among these different camp typologies represents a crucial element. We define archipelago of camps the flourishing of formal and informal encampments and sanctuaries, densely intertwined and reciprocally influencing one another, emerging from the contentious or fruitful encounters of the actors in the field.