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Photo of Sinem Kavak

Sinem Kavak

Researcher

Photo of Sinem Kavak

Agri-labour mobility in a changing climate : A systems approach to vulnerability and precarity among migrant farmworkers

Author

  • Sinem Kavak
  • Mine Islar
  • Lennart Olsson

Summary, in English

This research explores the climate vulnerability of migrant farmworkers within the climate-sensitive commercial agriculture of the Mediterranean Basin, through a case study of Turkey. In Turkey a vast majority of the farmworkers belong to Kurdish and Arab ethnic groups, including internally displaced people (IDPs) and Syrians. Utilising a critical political economy approach to vulnerability and synthesising a decade of qualitative data, we examine farmworkers’ experience of climate change. The findings demonstrate that climate vulnerability operates across three interconnected levels: (1) direct exposure to climate extremes, (2) indirect socio-economic impacts on livelihoods, social and political vulnerabilities, and (3) systemic effects arising from the interaction of multiple climate events across multiple locations of labour. To this end, we introduce the concept of agri-labour mobility systems. These operate through an ad hoc system of routes shaped by labour demands at specific points in production cycles and the minimum income thresholds required to offset the costs of migration. This framework allows us to analyse vulnerability beyond hazard-based frameworks by incorporating the political economy of farm labour and emphasising intersecting social, economic, political, and climate-related vulnerabilities. Finally, we assert that experiences with climate change for mobile livelihoods can only be understood by looking at the migration routes, multiple commodities and locations and the continuity of the experiences with the climate irregularities.

Department/s

  • Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
  • Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies (CMES)
  • MECW: The Middle East in the Contemporary World
  • LU Profile Area: Human rights
  • LUCSUS (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies)

Publishing year

2026-02

Language

English

Publication/Series

World Development

Volume

202

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Elsevier

Topic

  • Social Sciences
  • Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified

Keywords

  • migrant workers; labour exploitation; trade unions; legal mobilization
  • Climate change
  • vulnerability
  • precarious work
  • agriculture
  • Food

Status

Published

Project

  • Unravelling climate change impacts on migrant farmworkers in agri-food production

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1873-5991