Reconfiguración de áreas rurales y explotación de mano de obra inmigrante: el caso de Odemira, Portugal

The municipality of Odemira, in the Southern Portuguese region of Alentejo, has been going through a profound process of change with the growth of intensive farming, mainly using greenhouses, and foreign investment oriented towards exports. This has led to a remarkable growth of an extremely diversified migrant population living in the area: Asians, Sub-Saharan Africans, and Europeans. This paper intends to unpack the process of migrants' incorporation in the local/regional labour market and the impacts of an agricultural labour regime based on flexibility, low wages and seasonality in the municipality of Odemira. More specifically, the paper explores the effects of this migration in local social and spatial reconfigurations, focusing in domains like housing, public space, local commerce and schools. Particular attention is given to the challenges and opportunities, at the local level, resulting from the presence of a growing and heterogeneous migrant population. The information mobilized for this research includes interviews to local actors and migrants, and 65 questionnaires to migrant workers.