Empowerment of seasonal workers participating in the Morocco – Spain circular migration program

In 2001, the Moroccan and Spanish governments signed a mobility agreement to regulate migrant labor flows between the two countries. As a result of this agreement, an agreement on the management of migration flows of workers recruited in Morocco for the agricultural campaigns in Huelva was signed in 2013 in Cartaya, Spain, between the National Agency for the Promotion of Employment and Skills (ANAPEC) and the Foundation for Foreign Workers in Huelva (FUTEH). As part of this circular migration, ANAPEC recruits only relatively young Moroccan women from rural and peri-urban areas to go to Spain each year.

Since the end of the 2000s, thousands of Moroccan women have gone to work picking berries in the province of Huelva in Andalusia. For the 2019-2020 agricultural campaign, ANAPEC has recruited 19,000 Moroccan seasonal workers. These women are recruited on the basis of several criteria such as age (less than 45 years), family situation (dependent children …), skills, and physical performance. These seasonal workers, who represent the final beneficiaries of this project, find themselves in early retirement, subject to vulnerabilities and without financial stability. Exploring new avenues of income other than circular migration, therefore, becomes a necessity rather than a choice. Thus, it is essential to think ahead about the “post-circular migration” and alternative sources of income beyond seasonal work. It is therefore necessary to first acquire an understanding of the social and economic situation of these women, of the links maintained with their families and their communities in order to better respond to their needs.

In addition, a large number of these seasonal workers are repeaters who have been able to participate in several editions of this circular migration between Morocco and Spain, which has allowed them to acquire know-how and even expertise that can be exploited by promoting their skills and offering them the opportunity of professional reintegration into the local Moroccan market through the creation of projects, businesses or income-generating activities.

To empower these Moroccan seasonal workers in their home communities, there’s the need for close and adapted accompaniment to Moroccan seasonal workers so that they can, upon their return, create economic structures (VSEs and income-generating activities) allowing for the sustainability of their financial independence.

The implementation of appropriate and personalised assistance is however subject to a prior identification of their concrete needs, not only on the economic level but also on the social and personal level. This should be part of the migration project and it should start before the migration and make of the experience in Spain a learning opportunity to the beneficiaries.

If the target groups are engaged in a whole process through a project that stats by the migration and continues after the return to the country, it will have more chance to be a success.