Europe | Free roaming

The immigrants Europe quietly wants more of

Without foreign farm workers the EU’s berries would go unplucked

A harvest hand picks tomatoes at the Wittenberg Gemuese GmbH in Apollensdorf, Germany
The fruits of free movementPhotograph: Alamy
|AMSTERDAM, ROME AND WARSAW

LOOK OUT of a train window in Dutch farm country, and much of what you see is glass: row after row of greenhouses. At René Simons’s farm 60km south-east of Rotterdam, the raspberry bushes ramble across acres of trellises. The workers who pick them are mostly from eastern Europe—Poles and Bulgarians in peak season or Ukrainians, who often stay longer. “We have a few ladies from near Lviv now,” says Mr Simons. “We tell them, if it gets tough there, you can always stay here.”

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This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “The immigrants Europe wants”

From the November 2nd 2024 edition

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