Transnationally Segmented Labor Markets in the European Union – the Case of the Meat Processing Industry and Agriculture in the Euregio Region Rhine-Waal

The meat processing industry has been at the focus of public interest during the Covid-19-pandemic, when it became obvious how vulnerable specifically work migrants in this sector are, who experienced high risks in the work place, due to deficient occupational health and safety (OSH) measures. This was considered as no longer tolerable. While substantial legal changes have been introduced in Germany, e.g. with the Arbeitsschutzkontrollgesetz (labor protection control law), determining OSH and other standards in this branch, its enforcement continues to be undermined. We argue this is enabled through the functioning of the transnationalization of work and labor markets in the European Union, which has provided mobility of workers and the supply of cheap work in the meat industry and in agriculture. At the same time, these highly mobile workers are included in a segment in the labor market, characterized by precariousness, because institutions and regulations do not meet the conditions of a labor market beyond the nation state and its regulations. Institutions and regulations for the employment of mobile workers in the EU on the nation state level in different nation states as well as on the supra-national level have allowed loop holes specifically in a border region, such as the Euregio region Rhine-Waal, furthering exploitation. We present insights from the project “TRAM – Transnational Work Migration in the Euregio”, funded by Interreg VI-A, which has the aim to provide more encompassing insights in the working and living situation of transnational work migrants in the meat processing industry and in agriculture in the border region between Germany and the Netherlands. Being mobile between the Euregio Rhine-Waal and East-European countries, such as Romania and Bulgaria, they contribute to the spanning of a transnational social space and labor market between these regions determined, moreover, by a large income gap.