Unfortunately, illegal work in food industry is known all over the world.

Depending on where you take a closer look, you find different governmental legislations that make it rather difficult to ease this problem. Sometimes, workers in hospitality and food industry have no other option as to work illegally.

Agriculture in Europe is considered to be one of the main economic sectors that is heavily dependent on the exploitation of illegal labour. Specifically for seasonal activities.

Illegal work in Europe

Did you know that the fruits and vegetables you are buying in stores are way too cheap? I know, now you might be confused as of what cheap means. In this case, fruit and vegetables are for around 10 years sold on the market for less than what it costs to produce them!

The supply of these articles in Europe is therefore directly affected. Producers of the products are unable to struggle with the low-priced products.

What is usually the outcome of this situation? A consequence?

Let’s paint the journey a bit. So, the general tendency for a small-scale producer, small farmer is to disappear. And eventually get replaced by a large agri-food group. To sell the products in big chains of supermarkets.

Afterwards these supermarket chains will keep these producers competing with each other. Rushing to achieve the lowest price possibly will then directly affect the employees. How? They must -adapt-.

Extremely low wages, extensible working hours and rupture of social rights. That is what slowly separates the legal workforce from the food industry.

Nonetheless, illegal workforce is not common only in agriculture. Undeclared manpower is to be found also in hotels, catering trades or building. In agriculture, it is substantially visible in short-term jobs. These jobs are usually seasonal.

But what does motivate a farmer to recruit such illegal labour? You may think it is due to economic reasons. Yet, it is often to remedy the difficulties of recruitment.In other words, a farmer needs to meet the need of the amount of products to be products. Therefore, the demand is to hire enough staff avoiding lengthy and complicated administrative procedures.

Where specifically?

If this topic caught your interest, I can tell you some statistical overview. In Europe, the illegal work is common particularly in Southern and Eastern part. As of 2018, the data published on this topic show that 40 percent of illegal workers in agriculture were found in Romania. In Portugal it is 60 percent! That is more than a half.

In other parts of Europe it seems to account for less workers. For example in Poland, the amount of “illegals” exceeded 25 percent and in Italy 30 percent. Maybe you would not expect that, but in Germany and Austria, the amount of illegal workers is estimated to be around 10 percent.

Illegal work in America

The food industry in America is dependent on a work of thousands of undocumented immigrants. Even if hiring such worker seems risky and tricky. So why and how employers do it?

As of 2008, it was estimated that 13 percent of agricultural industry in America consists of illegal workers.

Imagine if the market lost all of these workers in one day… Well, it would cost the industry a huge amount of profits. Without this labor, the price of food could even increase up to six percent!

An estimated 73% of agriculture workers today were born outside of the United States.

This labour provides a totally essential work that puts food on our tables. Across all United States it powers the economy & supports communities. All together, food and agriculture sector is a $1.053 trillion industry.

Undocumented illegal workers make up approximately 50 percent of the farm labor workforce. Without the hard work of these people, thousands of kilograms of food would otherwise go unharvested.

These workers pay taxes and contribute to economy. However, they are not protected by the the U.S. labor laws. And on top, they are living every day under a threat of being separated from family or arrested. All of that, while working under extremely difficult conditions…

What can be done next?

A situation as described above is a true catch-22 in the United States. Even if employers want to do things legally, they don’t have the means to do so. From the governmental point of view, a comprehensive immigration reform would need to take place. This reform should include amnesty provisions for workers who are already in the US!