Tarleton, Lancashire. UK Weather 01 June 2021; Migrant field workers from the Ukraine have a early morning start harvesting Cos lettuce as supermarket demand for salad crops surges due to the continuing hot weather. Ukrainian migrants are a huge source of labor across Europe, making up the largest group of migrant workers on the continent. Ukraine’s migrant workers, many of whom look for work through recruiting firms, are primarily working in low-wage jobs on farms picking fruit and produce.
According to estimates from the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, “up to 9 million Ukrainians out of a total population of 42 million annually work abroad for some part of the year, and million have regular full-time work outside the country.” The working age population in Ukraine comprises million people, out of which million are officially employed. Thus, about a third of Ukrainian workers work abroad for at least part of the year. Farm workers from Ukraine in the Czech Republic The main reason for these staggering levels of labor migration is the devastating impact of capitalist restoration on Ukraine, which has been compounded by decades of austerity on behalf of the Ukrainian oligarchy and imperialism. Since the US- and EU-backed far-right coup in Kiev in February 2014, living conditions have deteriorated particularly sharply. Minimum wages in Ukraine are now below those of Thailand, Morocco or South Africa. Approximately 60 percent of the population lived beneath the subsistence level before the coronavirus crisis hit. These conditions have forced a large portion of the working age population to seek employment abroad, where their desperate situation is brutally exploited by major European corporations. Ukraine’s migrant workers, many of whom look for work through recruiting firms, are primarily working in low-wage manufacturing construction jobs and on farms picking fruit and produce.
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Location: Congleton, UK
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