Ethnography of exploitation in seasonal agricultural labor. The case of Bulgarian Roma laborers in Apulia, Southern Italy

This paper analyses a case of severe labour exploitation, involving a group of Bulgarian fruit and vegetable pickers of Roma origin employed in the seasonal harvest, especially of tomatoes, in the Foggia area involved in a 10-year cycle of seasonal migration between Italy and Bulgaria. The essay presents the general characteristics and factors affecting the form of extreme exploitation in farm work in Italy and reconstructs the working conditions and migration trajectories of this group of farm laborers of Roma origin to see how ethnicity, widespread anti-Gypsyism, and forms of extreme social exclusion accentuate the dynamics of labor exploitation. This group experiences the most intense forms of exploitation on the ground compared to other exploited foreign laborers. The case study is based on ethnographic that lasted about 2 years and interviews with privileged witnesses.