SEASONAL AGRICULTURAL

WORKERS IN OECD
COUNTRIES:
POLICY APPROACHES TO
ATTRACTION AND
GOVERNANCE
Jean-Christophe Dumont
Jonathan Chaloff
International Migration Division, OECD

EM%N France 25 juin 2021

 An historical perspective on seasonal
agricultural migrant workers in the USA
• A long history : China (-1882), Japan (-1907), South Asia (1908-12)
• Bracero programs (1917-21 & 1942-64) with the Dustbowl (1931-37)
in between
– 4.6 million Mexican admitted (1942-64)
– 5.3 million Mexican apprehended (1942-64)
• H-2A program (1952) – 81 countries of origin – certification =>
priority US workers; free housing; no negative impact on US
workers (Adverse Effect Wage Rate)
• IRCA (1987)
• The Mexican-born share of US crop workers varied from 55% (1989)
to 80% (2000) and 68% (2014). Share of unauthorized migrants
went from 10% (1989) to 55% (2000) and 47% (2014)
• In 2019, 207k H-2A petition approved (X3 compared to 2012)
• H-2A workers represent 10% of 1.1 m FTE in US crop agriculture
 Impact of COVID-19 … H-2A visa approvals
increased by 5% to 216k in 2020
Monthly issuance of non-immigrants visas by main categories in the United States, 2020
2019 2020

International exchange J-1 Intra-company transferees

International students J1 L1
70000 100000 9000
60000 90000 8000
80000 7000
50000 70000 6000
40000 60000 5000
50000 4000
30000
40000
3000
20000 30000
2000
20000
10000 1000
10000
0 0 0

November
April
January

March

July

December
February

June

August
May

September
October
Highly skilled temporary visas Seasonal non agricultural visas Seasonal agricultural visas
H1B 25000
H2B H2A
40000 40000
35000 20000 35000
30000 30000
25000 15000 25000
20000 20000
10000
15000 15000
10000 5000 10000
5000 5000
0 0 0
 Canada - Seasonal Agricultural Worker
Program (SAWP)
• Long-standing program (since 1966) for specific commodity farm primary
agriculture
• Labour market tested.
• Recruitment from Mexico or participating Caribbean countries (G2G).
Partner governments involved in recruitment and selection
• Employment for up to 8 months (excl. last 2 weeks of December)
• Must offer at least 240 hours work every 6 weeks.
• In 2019, a total of 46,707 positions were
approved under the SAWP, of which
12,858 were from the participating
Caribbean countries, the rest were from SAWP (and Temporary Agriculture
Mexico. This is about 80% of all Workers) admitted
temporary foreign workers in 60 000
40 000
agriculture 20 000
0
• About 3/4 of employer nominate their

2010
2011

2014
2012
2013

2016
2015

2017
2006

2009
2003
2002

2007
2004
2005

2008
workers, and about 25% have been
coming back every year for more than a SAWP Admissions NOC Primary Ag
decade.
 Australia & New Zealand
Australia’s Seasonal Worker New Zealand’s Recognised Seasonal
Program (SWP): Employer Scheme covers more countries
• Short-term, seasonal work but is capped. It has a high repeat rate
opportunities in the Australian (49% return rate - 89% to the same
agricultural sector (hospitality employer)
jobs in certain locations).
• 6-9 month work periods, allowing Australia New Zealand
repeated spells in the Program 14000 12000
• Introduced as a pilot in 2008 12000 10000
• 9 Pacific countries and Timor- 10000 8000
8000
Leste. 6000
6000
• Australia resumed the program in 4000
4000
2020 and brought some SWP 2000
2000
workers during COVID despite 0 0
strict health requirements.
2013
2015
2017

2011
2013
2015
2011

2017
2009

2009
2007

2007
• Grown significantly: 2800 visas
in FY2014-2015; In FY2018-2019,
about 12,000
 Poland
• From 2007: admission of citizens of neighbouring countries on the basis of a
simplified declaration to hire by employer, limited employment period (6/12
months). Largely Ukrainians. Sharp increase from 2015.
• From 2018: Transposition of EU Seasonal Workers Directive. Agriculture,
horticulture and tourism pass to Seasonal Work permits (maximum 9 months).
No LMT for citizens of neighbouring countries. This shifted many workers into
the standard seasonal work permit, leading to a sector shift in declarations.

In May 2018, a new type of a

Employer declarations of Number of registered
civil-law contract was created,
intention to employ a foreigner
documents within the allowing foreigners to help on
Other Ukraine simplified procedure by year harvests. This is an alternative
2000 and sector, 2013-2019 to the specific task contract
Milliers

1500
2 000 000
1 500 000
widely used in agriculture.
1 000 000 The new contract offers health
1000 500 000 and accident insurance, but
0
500 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 doesn’t specify minimum
0
Agriculture Manufacturing wage (hourly or monthly) as
Construction Transport/Warehouse in the other contract.
2009

2012
2011

2013
2014

2017
2010

2015

2018
2016

2019
2007
2008

Temp agencies Other

 Italy
• In principle, Italy manages seasonal work through entry quotas
• Repeat workers can obtain a multi-year visa
• A quota is set aside to obtain a temporary work permit for a certain
number of seasonal workers
• Not the only channel for seasonal agricultural work… Frequent
regularisations and “emersions”

Italy, seasonal migration programme admission ceilings, 2000-2019

90
Milliers

80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
 Looking forward

• A longstanding structural dependence of

foreign workers for seasonal agricultural
workers in several non-EU OECD countries
• … also visible in the agri-food industry and
beyond
• … and unlikely to evolve rapidly despite the
adoption of new technologies
• Raise questions for migrants rights and the
fight against irregular migration
Thank you!

For further information:

www.oecd.org/migration

jean-christophe.dumont@oecd.org
Jonathan.chaloff@oecd.org