Agricultural exceptionalism, migrant farmworkers and their transnational condition. Insights into media portrayal in Germany

In contrast to other economic sectors, agriculture has long been defined by its exceptionalism, which justifies specific regulations and legal exemptions, not least concerning labour laws. Drawing from rural studies, labour studies and transnational migration research, we aim to contribute to an understanding of the existing labour exceptionalism for migrant farmworkers to further the recent scholarship on migration and agriculture. This scholarship has begun to explore the concentration of migrants in seasonal farmwork, analysing migrants' decisions and employers’ choices, and the role of labour law. Our scholarship will add a focus on the media portrayal of migrant farmworkers, which, while not directly matching workers to jobs, reflects and shapes broader societal understanding and can inform political (in)action. Empirically, this paper presents a qualitative analysis of local media discourse on migrant seasonal farmworkers in Germany, which has not received very much attention in the emerging debate. These workers predominantly come from Eastern EU member states, work for the season and then return home. We further adopt a transnational perspective to reveal that the portrayal of the ideal matching of migrant workers to farmwork rests on their transnational condition of working “here” and living “there” and is silent about the externalisation of the costs of social reproduction. Against this backdrop we argue that this media portrayal reflects the discursive normalisation of the exceptional work and employment conditions of these migrant farmworkers through a positive assessment of the underlying transnational labour arbitrage. This further rationalises and legitimises labour exceptionalism for migrant farmworkers. • Media portrays Eastern European farmworkers as ‘good workers’ who are hard-working, skilled, and loyal • The portrayal offers a positive assessment of migrant farmworkers' transnational condition of working ‘here’ while living ‘there’ • The media portrayal of migrant farmworkers and their transnational condition rationalises German agriculture's labour exceptionalism