Precarity's reach: intersections of history, life, and labour in the Australian horticultural industry

The temporary labour migrations of Pacific Islanders to work in the orchards and packing sheds Australian horticultural industry feed demands for flexible that are marks precarious present. At same time, their experiences call attention diverse, historically situated, racialized configurations power risk converge present moment within particular places intersecting lives bodies differently positioned others. Focused on a fruit shed north-central Victoria, ni-Vanuatu workers, farmers, managers, mediating agents who meet there, this article seeks develop an ethnography precarity's intersections. Here, insecurities fraying reciprocities widely theorized context post-Fordist, neoliberal precarity articulate with hierarchies imaginaries development regimes, colonial co-production Global North South, always-precarious rhythms production. Precarity, I argue, is neither post-Fordist relations Western Europe, nor all-consuming leveller historical, cultural, place-based difference. Rather, it emerges out situated convergences diverse people histories, practices both mobility containment, producing but ultimately unequal distributions risk. Jusqu'où va la précarité : quand Histoire, vie et main-d’œuvre s'entrechoquent dans le secteur horticole australien Résumé Les travailleurs temporaires qui migrent des îles du Pacifique pour se faire embaucher les vergers hangars de conditionnement australien, répondent à demande caractérise un présent précaire. expériences ces attirent également l'attention sur diverses, historiquement situées racialisées pouvoir risque, convergent au lieux particuliers carrefour vies corps d'autres différemment positionnés. En concentrant hangar fruits centre-nord l’État Victoria travailleurs, agriculteurs, responsables médiateurs ni-vanuatu s'y rencontrent, cet propose développer une ethnographie intersections précarité. Ici, incertitudes délitement réciprocités, largement théorisés contexte postfordiste néolibérale, combinent avec hiérarchies imaginaires régimes développement, coproduction coloniale « Nord » Sud », ainsi que rythmes constamment précaires production horticole. L'autrice avance n'est ni propre postfordistes l'Europe occidentale, force dévorante nivellement différences historiques, culturelles locales. Elle émerge l'intersection personnes d'histoires diverses pratique fois mobilité l'endiguement flux, donnant lieu convergence et, en définitive, l'inégalité répartition risque. On day first met group one them, woman called Elisabeth,11 Pseudonyms used throughout. had just been told she was being sent back Vanuatu. twenty – eighteen women two men arrived Shepparton from Vanuatu's capital, Port Vila, months prior, were meant be there six months. Their stay as part Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP), migration scheme has become key plank Australia's programme region, promising flows remittances nations. SWP brings Australia limited periods designated industries where deemed insufficient local fill jobs. In practice, overwhelmingly jobs associated harvest industry: picking and, case group, vegetables sorted packaged sale. Months before arrival Australia, Elisabeth other hoping secure place gathered at building Vila they'd representatives travelled Vanuatu select workers season. absence apples mechanized lines, hopefuls put through series exercises golf balls, simulate processes sorting classing into Class 1, 2, juice quality grades. Describing process me subsequently, her office rural manager explained though wasn't ideal, nevertheless best available way get sense would well. ‘Obviously, though’, added, ‘we don't always right’. And so Elisabeth, having lucky have got selection process, now booked flight take morning, assessed not quick enough, discerning enough fruit. She hoped several thousand dollars result placement, buy small plot land urban capital which build house transform family's life. Instead, taking plastic shopping bag half-filled chocolate Easter eggs bought afternoon supermarket nearby town, grasped anxiously, standing outside caravan park cabin she'd lived last months, worrying aloud about finding connecting when transited alone Brisbane next day. orchards, fields, just-in-time Schemes like make ‘available required, undemanding not’ (B. Anderson 2010: 300). As Seth Holmes (2013) observes his study Mexican migrant farmworkers Washington California, advantage nation-states, they need exist state or employer productive capacity. When sick, pregnant, too old otherwise fail performance indicators productivity ascertained workings regimes (informal describes, formal workers) ensure relocated countries origin. Thus, patterns allow employers access potentially endless, cheaper pool labour, while also reflecting reproducing fragmented, flexible, neoliberalized temporalities precarity. A extensive body anthropological related scholarship well domestic facing increasingly insecure conditions decline Fordist good life fantasies post-Second World War social democracy (e.g. Berlant 2011). aspect precarity, understood, reconfiguration citizenship-labour nexus: ‘tipping point’ wherein figure citizen-worker no longer fully captures articulation (Neilson & Rossiter 2008: 59). Vassilis Tsianos Dimitris Papadopoulos (2006) highlight collapsing delineation productive/non-productive home/work public/private, loss lifelong scope worker, time forms element lifespan includes unproductivity (whether due illness, unemployment, age). For Donna McCormack Suvi Salmenniemi (2016: 8), linear favour ‘intensification present’, individual selves must endlessly ready adapt, move, any number emergent directions (see 2011; Lazzarato Waite 2009). Against positioning decline, others Neilson 2008) drawn wider longer-running vulnerability, including those felt by populations such elsewhere across never enjoyed securities Fordism. Questions thus emerge how understand relationship between politico-economic (of class, colonialism, modernity, non-industrial production) articulated. task approach what describes remaining cognizant contingencies history geography inform structure its contemporary experience (Hinkson 2017; see Millar 2018), particular, contexts encounter. article, seek attend whose region Australia. vulnerabilities capitalism rooted All enveloped moment, ways sharply differentiated histories underscore labour. spaces people, Developing argument involves intervention ongoing debates our discipline nature methodological orientations it. move beyond orthodox ethnographic models inquiry offers lens single, expression cultural site intersection, frictions hyper-mobility containment place. approach, South geographically distinct regions here, home simultaneously geographical imaginative relation co-produced asymmetrical encounters. Methodologically, draws conducted since 2016 groups involved Shepparton. This extended spent together six-month period stay, particularly lived, during Sunday trips. Participant observation supplemented detailed interviews, interviews managers hire workers’ placement. participant working subsequent season provided additional insight work, project service providers, contractors, agents, travelling farmers own fruit-picking attended participated events. moves firstly consideration how, where, locate development, workers. It then farmers’ reflected model reconfigured under turning risk, power, vulnerability these experiences. theorization ‘cruel optimism’ present, Lauren situates good-life post-war democratic ‘upward mobility, job security, political equality, lively, durable intimacy’ (2011: 3). Where once situations objects optimism held ‘foundational’, attachments ‘cruel’ They cruel attachments, argues, because central looking forward world, even relate floundering, themselves against flourishing. we cannot endure. effect imposes itself ‘as crisis’, acute trauma impasse: extended, ordinary crisis struggle new skills modes ‘living on’ face disorganization everyday 7-8). If understood represent shared, affective atmosphere ‘cutting class localities’ (Berlant 2011: 192) rooted, Berlant's analysis, Western, Euro-American world. here became ‘endemic’ 15) period, Fordism subject took hold began strain. Anne Allison argued, referencing idea security contract, speaks ‘the something only certain countries, historical periods, ever place’ (2013: 7). European movements mobilizing around precarité object critique potentially, makings subjectivity did Keynesian norm reforms appeared ‘an irregular phenomenon’ 54). view, though, show, reveals ‘exception’ (2008: Yet, if torn asunder economic America, point or, least, versions them exported non-Euro-American world emergence development. Development consolidated, industry, imaginary, orientation non-Western wake decolonization Cold demanded carrots sticks enacting influence over formerly colonized territories. direct rule ceased, framework hierarchical, often racialized, arrangements places, making Third (Escobar 2012) lack deficit (Ferguson 1990; Shrestha 1995; Stead West 2016). also, simultaneously, offer path integration market economy, education, consumption, industrialization, cultivation liberal ‘under-developed’ might progress towards practices, normative heights, visions attributed ‘developed’ West. Rossiter's injunction calls particularities society, out, doing far parameters states. perhaps entailed optimism, transformation structurally reproduce inequalities Norths Souths 2012). Co-constituted Fordism, antecedent. Expanding view further still, consider global subjugation, exchange promises emerged. industrialism West, contract made possible, hinged upon division resources majority imperialism colonialism (Wallerstein 1974-89). highlights constitutive forces some (and others) came enjoy pulled asunder. already-precarious labouring black brown produce (at least imaginatively fact) (some of) subjects include Indigenous laboured fields society recognize subjects, excluded formalized racism policy. nineteenth-century ‘blackbirded’, decades prior 1901 establishment White Policy, cane northern coerced, invariably exploitative (Banivanua-Mar 2007). labours form dark echo twenty-first-century keenly Islander employ (Stead 2019; Connell 2010). Amongst proliferating online forums New Zealand, instances exploitation described explicitly invoked blackbirding past. ‘Yes, us’, commented worker named Rosemary, discussing forced nineteenth century amid conversation faced neighbouring decried ‘modern-day slavery’. times, shadows past less explicit, loaded ways. ‘Mmm’, murmured younger spoke frequently media happy, eager, suited difficult performed. Arching eyebrow dramatic effect, continued: ‘Well, there's that’. These occluded unqualified presentism much theorizing 2017), indeed dominant discourses naturalize poverty package capitalist exploitation, schemes SWP, benevolence. To invoke claim equivalence schemes, neoliberalism more generally. is, draw threads bind possibility present; intimate embodied own. Stepping back, then, present’ characterizes can note accumulation modernity produced entire populations. Simon During, responding argues condition category subaltern ‘displaced’ precariat; ‘covers many us’ (During 2015: 22, 32). danger generalized specific reconfigured, dissolved. January 2017 ranged age twenties early fifties. Most children whom left dominance unusual reflects gendered horticulture cannery workforces feminized. Five third row, rest placement SWP. tiny town 20-odd kilometres centre boasts pub, post office, takeaway food kiosk, swimming pool, football field. shared four cabins, fifth. Inside, slept bunk beds cramped spaces, sheets hung up give privacy, kitchen area each prepared convection ovens purchased town. cabins barely insulated, stiflingly hot summer bitterly cold winter. residence another mostly male, allocated tomato farm, home, too, handful white, more-or-less permanent basis. Usually economically marginalized, worked trying piece different types seasonal picking, pruning, thinning year-round employment. housed Department Foreign Affairs Trade (DFAT), pitched Island states, employers, broader discourse advantageous needs aims activities (Mares Maclellan reckoning, ‘win-win’ kinds public-private partnerships business-led replacing traditional directly funded aid delivery. chance earn greater income than vicinity times prospect transformed lives, families, communities. Like most Efate Island, originally islands money land, house, capital. Melanesian customary nominally protected Vanuatu, widespread alienation proceeded spite legislative provisions inalienability, spurred demand foreigners, Australians, attracted slice tropical, beachfront ‘paradise’ (McDonnell 2018). resultant real estate effectively priced Efate. addition members pay higher education Joyce, 23-year-old woman, save University nurse paying school fees siblings families. Others seeking establish expand entrepreneurial activities: businesses selling fresh fish cooked food; purchasing vehicle operate public transport system; simply buying goods could resold profit Bluetooth speakers cheap jewellery. older few return confided ambitious plans set guesthouses tourists, plans, revealed herself agent. clear, literature life, marked abjection (Butler 2004), status. willingly, enthusiastically, pursued employment Many pointed positive aspects said again following seasons, able. Yet experienced participation fundamentally constrained stark asymmetries, dreams undercut deep ambivalence. pleased earning done managing café 24-year-old Andrina conceded expecting earn, won't reach it’. She, behind young child relatives, missed him desperately. live in. girl, raised auntie Pentecost parents Vila. couldn't imagine leaving did, someone else. Nevertheless, course that, wage yield dreamt son. One reading indeed, Andrina's kind false consciousness. endurance hopes, pragmatic pursuit opportunities balance available, preclude knowledge fairly set. Precarious Kathleen (2018) argued catadores reclaiming recyclables Rio Janeiro's rubbish dump, sometimes choice developmentalist contrast, attuned inequalities, structuring scheme. Tracey, agency responsibility organizing travel ‘feel-good factor’ job. Commenting manager's decision send early, anguish. ‘She knows means them’, said. sentiments mirror identified Rachel Smith's (2019) Zealand's guest-worker Smith found ideas kinship hospitality describe relationality. Critically, ‘mutual dependence’ cultivated. Shepparton, Tracey's feelings paternalism. 20-something-year-old sighed exasperation recounting questions ask struggled negotiate unfamiliar environment setting pay-as-you-go mobile phones, using transfer services tedious. ‘They going doctors they're sick’, complained, ‘because Oblivious struggles maximize funds transformational hopes families communities hang, rolled eyes slightly exhaled: ‘It's lot children’, bosses, meanwhile, hit limits margins serviced. Good likewise butted hard edges border regime. designed facilitate strictly time-limited placements curtail possibilities claim-making enduring belonging. Workers’ allowed accompany eligible health care, usually free choose accommodation, heavily mediated, contractors manage