British Farmers Recruit 3,000-Mile-Distant Central Asians as Brexit Drains Seasonal Labor
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jun 23
British Farmers Recruit 3,000-Mile-Distant Central Asians as Brexit Drains Seasonal Labor
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 23
Summary
Thousands of Central Asian workers on six-month visas are now picking and pruning British produce, filling farm jobs once dominated by Eastern Europeans before Brexit.
British farmers turned to Uzbekistan and neighboring countries after EU workers lost automatic rights to work in Britain, leaving acute seasonal labor shortages.
In Kent, workers like 44-year-old Uzbek laborer Shukrat Djuraev illustrate how the post-Brexit farm workforce has shifted farther afield rather than shrinking.
The reliance on migrant labor underscores a political contradiction 10 years after the Brexit vote, which was sold as a way to tighten border control.
That tension has intensified immigration politics for Labour as Reform U.K. gains ground, helping destabilize Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who announced his resignation Monday.