Mig.Pro.
Migrants’ protests: how the borders of citizenship are conceived, mobilized and constructed by migrants’ farm workers protests

Project Research Activities Team Contacts

Project

The overall objective of Mig.Pro. is to provide new insights, through empirical research, on the theorization of political subjectivities and citizenship. This, in order to foster public debates on the role that social sciences, policymakers and citizens and non-citizens alike have in shaping what citizenship is in the 21st century’s ‘inclusive’ Europe as well as on the other side of the Atlantic-Canada.

To reach this goal Mig.Pro aims to explore migrant agricultural workers’ (MAWs) and their allies’ networks, agency, and grassroots struggles to be granted fundamental human rights, and decent living and working conditions, by looking at everyday forms of protest, resistance and mobilisation in two different contexts: Canada and Italy.
Particular attention is paid to migrant women agricultural workers, who often face intersecting forms of exploitation that even though do not silent their agency and everyday resistance.
Across both countries, MWAs, multiple grass roots movements and networks have mobilized, in multiple forms, since the last 20 years and more to denounce the human rights violation of this part of the population and to foster change in policies and practices.

Amplifying the resonance of resistance strategies is the crosscutting theme central to the study that brings also to ask:

  • What one context may learn from the other in terms of grassroots movements for affirming fundamental rights?
  • Are there similarities, differences and if yes what are the underneath processes?

In order to grasp specificities and complexities methodology has been adapted to each context.
A triangulation of qualitative instruments will be utilised by assuming an intersectional and critical positionality inspired by situational analysis (SA) for the Canadian context and by participatory action research (PAR) for the Italian one.

This research intends also to contribute to the cross-fertilization between different disciplines: social movement studies, migration, borders and citizenship studies, labour studies. Among its main outcomes, the project foresees policy recommendations co-build with participants. 

Research

Study’s originality emerges from the lens it will utilise: shedding light on the political subjectivities of migrants’ workers in agriculture through an interdisciplinary approach that draws on social movement studies, citizenship and migration studies, labour studies and critical feminist studies.
For this, five specific objectives (SO) will be pursued: 

  • SO1 - offering a contribution to social movement studies, migration, citizenship studies and labour studies through both a literature review and empirical research;
  • SO2 - contributing to academic discussion on structure-agency interactions in the field of access to legal status and rights;
  • SO3 - ensuring research results are a product useful to activists, stakeholders, migrants and migrants’ supporters organisations;
  • SO4 - offering methodological innovation;
  • SO5 - elaborating policy recommendations. 

Methodology

Mig.Pro. is grounded in a strong empirical basis and has been inspired by PI’s previous direct experience in the field of social intervention to prevent work exploitation in agriculture.

In order to grasp specificities and complexities, the methodology has been adapted to each context. A triangulation of qualitative instruments will be used by assuming an intersectional and critical positionality inspired by situational analysis (SA) for the Canadian context and by participatory action research (PAR) for the Italian one. The following are foreseen for both Italy and Canada:

  1. media scan;
  2. policy analysis;
  3. intensive fieldwork through participant observation;
  4. semi-structured interviews with: activists, practitioners, stakeholders, Ngo-s representatives, migrants’ supporters, trade unions, service providers;
  5. for the Italian context the direct involvement of migrant agriculture workers, as well as stakeholders (actors in point nr. 4), following PAR principles.

Activities

Conferences

  • 29/06-2/07/2026 - IMISCOE (International Migration Research Network), 23rd annual conference “Strengthening Migration Studies through Community Engagement”, Girona and online
    Invited speaker to the workshop “Immigrant Political Participation Across Differentiated European Societies: Between Grassroots Mobilisation and Institutional Engagement” organized by Francesca Campomori and Eleonora Desiata (Ca' Foscari University of Venice)
    Programme 29/06-2/07/2026
  • 28-31/01/2026 - 10th SISEC conference “L’era del Disordine. Conflitto e cooperazione nel capitalismo contemporaneo”, Florence
    Paper: “The Politics of Structural Precarity: Policy Narratives and the Maintenance of Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP)", presented by Rafaela Pascoal
    Programme 28-31/01/2026 [ITA]
  • 27/11/2025 - Webinar: Migrant Worker Policy Recommendations Launch - Canada
    10.00 am-12.00 noon EST (Toronto) / 4.00 pm-6.00 pm CET (Rome), event in English
file pdf Programme 27/11/2025
Policy recommendations for decent living and working conditions in Canadian agriculture (co-constructed with research participants):
target: Federal and Provincial Governments of Canada
target: Civil society and stakeholders of Canada
Recording on YouTube:
video 27/11/2025 		404 KB
  • 24/11/2025 - Webinar: Migrant Worker Policy Recommendations Launch - Italy
    3.00 pm-5.00 pm CET, event in Italian
     
file pdf Programme 24/11/2025 [ITA]
Policy recommendations for decent living and working conditions in Italian agriculture (co-constructed with research participants):
target: Italia [ITA]
Recording on YouTube:
video 24/11/2025 		283 KB
  • 13/10/2025 - Food Production and Institutionalised Exploitation
    9.00 am-6.00 pm CET, Ca’ Foscari (Aula Baratto), Dorsoduro 3246, Venice
file pdf Programme 13/10/2025 [ITA]
MSCA Mig.Pro. final conference. A full-day event dedicated to the final findings of the Mig.Pro. project, held at Ca’ Foscari University.
Recordings on YouTube:
video 13/10/2025 - morning plenary and discussions
video 13/10/2025 - afternoon panels and concluding remarks 		275 KB
file pdf Abstracts 13/10/2025 227 KB
file pdf Opening speech, Silvia Zabeo and Fabio Perocco - 13/10/2025 1 MB
file pdf "Inquiry in Action", C. Susana Caxaj - 13/10/2025 4 MB
file pdf "End Migrant Worker Unfreedom", DTMF-RHFW - 13/10/2025 1 MB
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  • 10/10/2025 - Doing participatory research: migrant activists speak
    12.15 pm-1.45 pm, San Sebastiano (Room 4), Dorsoduro 1686, 30123 Venice
    Side event related to the one of 13/10/2025
    With Gabriel Allahdua, Association for the Rights of Household and Farm Workers and Stacey Gomez, Executive Director at the Centre for Migrant Worker Rights-Nova Scotia (Canada). Organized by Giulia Garofalo, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, and Eriselda Shkopi, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.
file pdf Programme 10/10/2025 291 KB
  • 21/05/2025 - Social movements and the law: Legal mobilisation in a comparative perspective
    International research workshop, COSMOS - The Centre on Social Movement Studies, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence, 20-21 May 2025
    Paper presented: “Legal mobilisation in Canada: migrant agricultural workers’ and access to fundamental human rights”
    Programme 21/05/2025
  • 1/04/2025 - Cosmos Share. Spring semester 2025, Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence
    Paper presented: “Networks of supporters and temporary migrant agricultural workers’ fundamental human rights in Canada”. Discussant: Chiara Milan (SNS)
  • 19-20/02/2025 - 2 days workshop “Decolonial collective knowledge creation”
    With Erin Araujo, Generator, Department of Decolonial Economics, El Cambalache (Chiapas, Mexico)
    MSCA researcher’s role: organizator and facilitator. Target group: students, MSCA Fellows, post-doc, social operators/workers
    Programme 19-20/02/2025
  • 11/12/2024 - “Innovazione Culturale e Sociale: Dialoghi di Transizione”, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
    “Mig.pro.: A reflection on methods, innovation and impact/practice-based research”
file pdf Programme 11/12/2024 [ITA] 400 KB
  • 2-5/07/2024 - IMISCOE (International Migration Research Network), 21 Annual Conference “Migration as a Social Construction: A Reflexive Turn”, Lisbon and online
    IMISCOE programme 2024
    • 3/07/2024 - Session #77 "Unveiling inequities and resistances in migrants' access to the labour market", paper “Looking at the intersections of structures of exploitation and resistance strategies to re-position ourselves as researchers and scholars” (sole author)
    • 3/07/2024 - Discussant session #127 “Migration and the Labour Market"
    • 4/07/2024 - Invited speaker to the workshop “‘(De)constructing Migrants’. Welcome around the World through Multi-stakeholder Perspectives: Bringing in Space, Scale and Geopolitics”
  • 18/06/2024 - “Cities and Migration: action - research experiences”, organized by UNESCO-SSIIM Chair Iuav, Venice
    Invited speaker, panel “Migrants and rights to housing: between action-research and activism"
    Programme 18/06/2024 [ITA]
  • 19-23/06/2023 - XIXe Congrès International de l’ARIC et IIe congrès international de l’ÉDIQ, Université Laval, Québec Inited speaker Symposium SF3 - “Migration féminine, trajectoires et projet de vie. Regards croisés sur les stratégies d’accueil et d’aide à l’insertion des institutions et des associations”, Paper “Conditions de travail et luttes des travailleuses agricoles migrantes en Italie et au Canada”
    Programme 19-23/06/2023 [FRA]

Outreach activities

  • 5/03/2024 - Conference “L’agricoltura …si cura”, organized by FLAI CGIL Cuneo, Italy
    Paper “The living and working conditions of workers with a migrant background in agriculture in Canada: what similarities and lessons with/for Italy?”
    Programme 5/03/2024 [ITA]
  • 18/06/2024 - “Cities and Migration: action - research experiences”, organized by UNESCO-SSIIM Chair Iuav, Venice, italy
    Invited speaker Panel “Da cosa nasce cosa: processi di costruzione di ricerche su migranti, servizi e reti”, presentation titled “Proporre e condurre un progetto Marie Skłodowska Curie: consigli e approcci sulla base dell’esperienza”
    Programme 18/06/2024 [ITA]

Publications

  • Edited volume Working title: “Migrant labour resistance and struggles in agriculture in an era of polycrisis” Editors: Dr. Reena Kukreja, Queen’s University, Canada Dr. Eriselda Shkopi, Ca’ Foscari University, Italy Dr. Fabio Perocco, Ca’ Foscari University, Italy. In progress, Publication foreseen for the end of 2026
  • A chapter, in an edited volume, titled “Fragmentation and Solidarity in Migrant Agricultural Labor Struggles”, In progress, publication foreseen for the end of 2026

Media and mentions

Networking

Team

Eriselda Shkopi

Eriselda Shkopi

Principal Investigator
Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Italy)

Susana Caxaj

Susana Caxaj

Supervisor
The Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing, Western Universty (Canada)

Rafaela Da Conceição Hilario Pascoal

Rafaela Da Conceição Hilario Pascoal

Postdoctoral research Fellow
Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Italy)

Fabio Perocco

Fabio Perocco

Supervisor
Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Italy)