Thai Seasonal Migrants Working for the Finnish Wild Berry Industry

In 2005 one Finnish wild berry company invited 92 Thai-workers to pick wild berries for them. Today, there is over 3000 Thai-workers during the wild berry season in Finland. Thai-pickers are not employed by the companies and therefore lack protection from labour legislation. High number of pickers need to take loans to cover the cost of travel and recruiting from Thailand. Their position is precarious, and a crop failure in Finland can mean debt after the season. The Thai temporary workers can pick berries based on Finnish right of public access to natural resources, like wild berries. Heated debate has taken place in Finland concerning the vulnerable position of the migrant pickers. The income difference between North-East Thailand and Finland is considerable, and therefore taking the risk of picking wild berries is tempting. For many succesful pickers the temporary work in Finland has turned into circular migration. The presentation is based on multi-sited ethnography conducted in Finland and Thailand. Thai-migrants views and experiences are related within the wild berry industry’s global production chain where berries are manufactured and added value is produced. The research material includes ca. 50 interviews of Thai-pickers and field work, Thai and Finnish civil servant interviews, company manager interviews and interviews of recruiting agencies that recruit pickers in Thailand and manage the berry camps in Finland. Body of media material has been collected since 2005. The ethnographic and other material include extensive income information on workers, and differences between workers are shown to exist. Thai temporary workers are not a homogenous group. There is considerable differences in wealth, and as a result possibilities of temporary migration vary. Pickers have less negotiating power towards other actors in the business, but recently there have been protests against their unequal position in the Finnish wild berry industry.