The research was presented today at Palazzo Dogana, headquarters of the Province of Foggia “Made in Immigration. Lands, crops, cultures”, first research report on immigrant workers in the Italian agri-food sector. The dossier collects data, analyzes and proposals and also delves into nine territorial case studies, with a focus on the Foggia area with the tomato harvest in the so-called Capitanata.
The event was greeted by the Secretary of CISL Puglia Valentina Donno, the General Secretary of CISL Foggia Carla Costantino, the President of the Province of Foggia Giuseppe Nobiletti, Don Pasquale Cotugno Director of Caritas of Cerignola – Ascoli Satriano.
Commissioned by the FAI-CISL, the “Made in Immigritaly” report, 511 pages, was created by the Centro Studi Confronti and is edited by Maurizio Ambrosini, Rando Devole, Paolo Naso, Claudio Paravati. The research examines the ways in which immigrant work is managed in specific contexts and analyses, in addition to the critical issues, the different profiles of the phenomenon, including the most encouraging outcomes, the result of virtuous mechanisms of cooperation, mutual learning, local integration that are being implemented in the workplace.
In the introductory greeting, the General Secretary of the Fai-Cisl Foggia Donato Di Lella recalled how “in Puglia there are a total of over 156,600 immigrant workers, of these 46,147 in Foggia alone, with 31,324 men and 14,823 women. There are more than 60 informal settlements distributed throughout the province. The report – continues Di Lella – helps to keep the spotlight on the critical issues but also highlights the virtuous projects such as those started with the Caritas of Cerignola, with the Cooperativa Pietra di Scarto, with our “protections in motion” activities. This is to put the person at the centre, create a good welcome and integration, promote legality and the meeting of job supply and demand”.
Alessandra Vitullo, sociologist and researcher at the Sapienza University of Rome, oversaw the case study in the Foggia area. The overall presence of immigrant workers employed in agriculture in Puglia constitutes 21% and around 35% of the regional total is concentrated in the province of Foggia. We are talking in particular about the Capitanata territory: a very vast territory, with an extension of over 7,000 square kilometers, where agriculture represents the predominant activity. 30% of Italian industrial tomatoes are produced here, as well as other crops such as broccoli, asparagus, olive trees and grapes. However, the tomato harvest clearly represents the most important employment opportunity for migrant workers, who in the summer months – between June and August – thousands flock to the fields of Capitanata, for the harvest which takes place in particular in the areas north of Foggia , between San Severo and Apricena.
“Within this context – explained Alessandra Vitullo – the research aims to analyze the economic and social dynamics that branch out around the migrant labor network. From exploitative working conditions to precarious housing and health conditions, the study conducted through interviews and a mapping of the territory made it possible to highlight both the critical issues and the possible solutions to be pursued in order to improve the extreme conditions of hardship in which migrant agricultural workers in Capitanata pay; workers who nevertheless represent a fundamental part of the production of Made in Italy tomatoes”.
The debate saw the intervention of Madia d’Onghia, professor of labor law at the University of Foggia. The works, moderated by Claudio Paravati, Director of the Centro Studi Confronti, were concluded by the national Fai-Cisl General Secretary Onofrio Rota who recalled how “immigrants who work regularly in Italy are approximately 2.4 million, more than 10% of the busy. In agriculture the data is more relevant than this average value, in fact foreigners employed in the sector are almost 362,000, and cover 31.7% of working days. There continues to be a great need – continues Rota – but the flow decree is not connected with the business system in our country. Suffice it to say that most of the needs are in Lombardy, Emilia Romagna and Veneto, but the region that submitted the most applications (300 thousand out of the 700 thousand available) is Campania. For some time as a union we have maintained that bilateralism is the preferred way to create a real mismatch between job supply and demand, guarantee legality, real inclusion, fair and safe work. The real challenge – concludes Rota – is to make agri-food more attractive, and to do this social protections, skills and incomes must be increased”.
