Mind the recognition gaps

Layers of invisibility of farm migration in Norway

Bibliographic Data

ID3614830
AuthorsInga Sæther (0000-0002-3388-9251), Jakub Stachowski (0000-0001-8243-8863)
Year2024
Volume50
Issue10
Pages2594-2611
Publication date2024-06-14
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Community (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369183x.2023.2252991
OpenAlexW4386457576
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited36

This article analyses the phenomenon of ‘invisible’ seasonal farm migrants, drawing on the case of labour migration to Norwegian agriculture. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews conducted between 2017 and 2020, with local stakeholders, farmers, and migrants, we employ the notions of (mis)recognition and recognition gaps to illustrate how various aspects of invisibility are the result of overlapping factors and practices, performed by the involved actors. Our analysis demonstrates how the established narrative of the normality of labour migration facilitates rendering the migrant workers invisible both in discursive and in institutional terms and reduces its function to a pure labour force. This is related to narratives about structural changes within agriculture that transformed the once intimate relationship between farmers and workers into a more impersonal employer-worker relationship. Finally, the situation of seasonal migrants can be understood as a ‘double absence’ as their lack of interaction with the local community and circular patterns of living deprive them of social reproduction and labour market opportunities in both the home and the host country. Thus, invisibility is a crucial component in normalising, legitimising, maintaining and reproducing the continued misrecognition of seasonal migrants

Agriculture · Demographic economics · Economic geography · Economics · Ethnography · Geography · Invisibility · Narrative · Normality · Norwegian · Sociology · Gender Studies · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Psychology · Rural development and sustainability · Social Psychology · Tourism, Volunteerism, and Development

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Open DOIOpen Access