How public policies and social capital secure professional insertion and livelihoods? Insights from the Haitian migrant community involved in the agricultural sector in Guadeloupe
2021
This paper aims at understanding livelihood trajectories of Haitian immigrants working as farm laborers and small farmers in Guadeloupe as farm-waged workers or small-scale farmers. It questions the processes at play for their resilience/vulnerability. The theoretical basis articulates the sustainable rural livelihood framework with an approach in terms of "circulatory-transformative capabilities" inspired by Sen's works. Analyzing capitals and resources' endowment, choices and socio-economic trajectories, the paper questions the room for maneuver of immigrants in achieving the kind of life they find valuable. It then gives a central place to individual choices that are constrained by the contexts at different scales. The paper addresses the ability of immigrants to organize their life and to face hazards. The qualitative survey's findings highlight two major findings. First, immigrants mobilize, accumulate, and circulate capitals in a transnational space to pursuit their livelihood strategies. Second, some resources (regularization, access to land and to nonfarm activities) interfere in their trajectories and question their resilience/vulnerability. The results discuss in particular the specific role of social capital and public policies in securing incomes, a debate that can be useful in terms of public action to support immigrants in reinforcing their livelihoods.
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