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Migrants, Economic Mobility and Socio-Economic Change in Rural Areas

The Case of Greece

University of Macedonia, Greece, loisl{at}uom.gr

Theodosis Sykas

University of Macedonia, Greece

This article evaluates the contribution of Immigrants Working in Agriculture (IWA) and their socio-economic mobility over time. Up to the present, European and Greek literature has focused on immigrants' impact on metropolitan areas, in part due to the relatively insignificant role of agriculture in the European economies. Moreover, concerning the socio-economic mobility of IWA only snapshot views are available in the literature. Through field-work carried out in the northern Greek countryside, reinforced by analysis of the FADN database, we argue that the influx of immigrants in the early 1990s constituted a driving force in the development of the Greek countryside in a period during which long-term structural problems in the rural sector had condemned it to relative immobility. Immigrants' contribution is articulated at three levels. First, they enabled farmers who had abandoned agriculture to re-enter the sector and, at the same time, keep their non-agricultural jobs, thus increasing their sources of income. Additionally, IWA helped active farmers to expand their holdings, and to enrich and diversify their cultivations. Second, IWA have not displaced familial agricultural employment, as this was in decline prior to their arrival. Last, their employment allowed for a more flexible combination and specialization of capital and labour in the production process. Moreover, contrary to many developed countries, immigrants in the Greek countryside have displayed upward economic mobility over time.This is due mainly to occupational mobility in the agricultural sector and a movement to non-agricultural jobs, as well as spatial mobility between rural regions, which has increased the number of days of employment and income.

Key Words: agriculture • countryside • Greece • immigration

European Urban and Regional Studies, Vol. 16, No. 3, 237-256 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0969776409104691


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