Explotación y precariedad sociolaboral, la realidad de las personas migrantes trabajadoras en agricultura en España Translated title: Exploitation and socio-labor insecurity, the reality of migrant agricultural workers in Spain

One of the most important social phenomena in the global context is the flow of immigration from developing countries, motivated by economic and employment related issues. Discrimination can be approached as a health risk factor within the immigrant population's working environment, especially for those immigrants at greater risk from social exclusion and marginalisation. The aim of this study is to research perceptions of discrimination and the specific relationship between discrimination in the workplace and health among Spain's immigrant population. A qualitative study was performed by means of 84 interviews and 12 focus groups held with immigrant workers in five cities in Spain receiving a large influx of immigrants (Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante and Huelva), covering representative immigrant communities in Spain (Romanians, Moroccans, Ecuadorians, Colombians and Sub-Saharan Africans). Discourse narrative content analysis was performed using pre-established categories and gradually incorporating other emerging categories from the immigrant interviewees themselves. The participants reported instances of discrimination in their community and working life, characterised by experiences of racism, mistreatment and precarious working conditions in comparison to the Spanish-born population. They also talked about limitations in terms of accessible occupations (mainly construction, the hotel and restaurant trade, domestic service and agriculture), and described major difficulties accessing other types of work (for example public administration). They also identified political and legal structural barriers related with social institutions. Experiences of discrimination can affect their mental health and are decisive factors regarding access to healthcare services. Our results suggest the need to adopt integration policies in both the countries of origin and the host country, to acknowledge labour and social rights, and to conduct further research into individual and social factors that affect the health of the immigrant populations.

Background A systematic attempt to summarize the literature that examines working conditions and occupational health among immigrant in Europe and Canada. Methods We established inclusion criteria, searched systematically for articles included in the Medline, Embase and Social Sciences Citation Index databases in the period 2000–2016 and checked the reference lists of all included papers. Results Eighty-two studies were included in this review; 90% were cross-sectional and 80% were based on self-report. Work injuries were consistently found to be more prevalent among immigrants in studies from different countries and in studies with different designs. The prevalence of perceived discrimination or bullying was found to be consistently higher among immigrant workers than among natives. In general, however, we found that the evidence that immigrant workers are more likely to be exposed to physical or chemical hazards and poor psychosocial working conditions is very limited. A few Scandinavian studies support the idea that occupational factors may partly contribute to the higher risk of sick leave or disability pension observed among immigrants. However, the evidence for working conditions as a potential mediator of the associations between immigrant status and poor general health and mental distress was very limited. Conclusion Some indicators suggest that immigrant workers in Europe and Canada experience poorer working conditions and occupational health than do native workers. However, the ability to draw conclusions is limited by the large gaps in the available data, heterogeneity of immigrant working populations, and the lack of prospectively designed cohort studies. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12889-018-5703-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

This study aimed to analyse how immigrant workers in Spain experienced changes in their working and employment conditions brought about Spain's economic recession and the impact of these changes on their living conditions and health status.