ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the benefits at the individual level of Romanian migration to Huelva, Spain, for work in the intensive agriculture sector through a critical appraisal of the perspective of the triple-win approach. Adopted by several important international organisations, triple-win promotes managed temporary/circular migration as a means of minimising the negative effects of migration and enhancing its positive ones. Romanian migration to Huelva offers the opportunity to explore the assertions behind the triple-win approach. Initiated in 2002 through a bilateral agreement as part of the Huelvan micro-guest-worker programme, it ceased to be publicly managed in 2008. Yet, migration continued, sustained by the recruitment efforts of the Spanish employers. Based on interviews with Romanian workers at the origin and destination areas, our findings suggest that migration practices did not fundamentally change after 2008. In challenging the triple-win perspective, we point out that the benefits associated with this migration are rather limited in scope. For our informants, seasonal migration is a way to manage a precarious situation at the origin rather than a path to substantial, long-term improvement, regardless of the institutional framework (publicly or privately managed).
