Safe and fruitful? Structural vulnerabilities in the experience of seasonal migrant workers in agriculture in Germany and Poland

This paper focuses on the occupational safety and health (OSH) of migrant farmworkers in two quite distinct socio-political contexts: Polish farmworkers in Germany and Ukrainian farmworkers in Poland. The authors apply the structural vulnerability concept to shed light on structural factors influencing migrants’ vulnerabilities in the workplace and to address this issue through the perspectives of migrant farmworkers. This paper is based on participant observation and individual interviews that the authors conducted in Germany and Poland among migrant farmworkers, as well as semi-structured interviews with employers. The gathered evidence allows us to argue that functioning in different migration regimes results in differences regarding migrants’ occupational safety and health, as well as in the levels of agency they are able to exercise given their migration-related positionality.