Abstract
This paper analyses the Sub-Saharan agricultural migrant workers’ struggles in the rural outskirts of Foggia in the workers’ struggles in the rural outskirts of Foggia in the southern Italian region of Puglia. ‘Red gold’ refers to the tomato industry’s reliance on the labour of migrant workers, while ‘black labour’ refers to the conditions in which this work, both irregular and undeclared, is carried out. This ‘at the margins’ research was conducted in Borgo and Ghana House, two informal settlements at the outskirts of Foggia. The research method, empirically grounded on in-depth semi-structured interviews and participant observation, is complemented by a systematic analysis of secondary sources, narrations produced by the migrant workers themselves, and co-created stories.The paper explores questions of racism and dehumanization, the lack of effective labour protections and regulations, and particularly the invisibility of the migrants. Important processes addressed include borderisation and marginalisation, as well as the creation of the shantytowns and informal settlements, defined by the residents themselves as ‘ghettos’. These ghettos, which are liminal, isolated, rural spaces of invisibility become lethal places due to the lack of basic sanitary conditions, a propensity for fires, road accidents to and from the fields, and racial discrimination and violence directed towards the migrant ghetto workers. Finally, the paper raises the question of how the unhuman working and living conditions in the tomato fields and in the ghettos lead the Sub-Saharan migrant workers and ghetto residents to accept a survival mode of life which contributes to putting their own life in peril.