| ISSN: | 1640-1808 |
RESEARCH PAPER
The Triple-Win Illusion: Temporary Migration and Cheap Labour in Japanese and Spanish Agriculture
1
Instituto Universitario de Estudios sobre Migraciones (IUEM), Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Spain
2
Department of Comparative Study of Cultures, Tsuru University, Japan
3
Faculty of Business and Commerce, Keio University, Japan
These authors had equal contribution to this work
Submission date: 2025-12-03
Final revision date: 2025-12-22
Acceptance date: 2025-12-22
Online publication date: 2026-03-18
Publication date: 2026-03-18
Corresponding author
Yoan Molinero-Gerbeau
Instituto Universitario de Estudios sobre Migraciones (IUEM), Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Rey Francisco 4, 28008, Madrid, Spain
Instituto Universitario de Estudios sobre Migraciones (IUEM), Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Rey Francisco 4, 28008, Madrid, Spain
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
This article examines how state-managed temporary migration schemes in agriculture serve the structural imperative to secure cheap and controllable labour in core economies. Using a comparative case study of Spain and Japan within a world-ecology framework and the Most Different Systems Design approach in comparative politics, this analysis examines how distinct demographic trajectories, agrarian structures, and migration regimes nonetheless converge around similar logics of labour cheapening, mobility control, and socio-legal stratification. The study combines secondary literature, legal and policy documents and statistical data to reconstruct the historical evolution, institutional design and social effects of Japan’s TITP/SSW schemes and Spain’s GECCO programme. The analysis shows that the celebrated “triple-win” framing functions primarily as a legitimising discourse: it presents highly asymmetric arrangements as mutually beneficial while masking their role in sustaining exploitative agricultural labour regimes. Despite divergent narratives and policy architectures, both cases generate temporary, segmented and politically manageable migrant workforces. The article concludes that agricultural migration policies in the global core are best understood as nationally specific articulations of a shared structural logic rooted in contemporary agro-capitalism.
REFERENCES (45)
1.
Avallone, G. (2017). The land of informal intermediation: The social regulation of migrant agricultural labour in the Piana del Sele. In A. Corrado, C. De Castro, & D. Perrotta (Eds.), Migration and agriculture: Mobility and change in the Mediterranean area (pp. 217–230). Routledge.
2.
Bauböck, R. & Ruhs, M. (2022). The elusive triple win: Addressing temporary labour migration dilemmas through fair representation. Migration Studies, 10(3), 528–552. https://doi.org/10.1093/migrat....
4.
Castles, S. & Ozkul, D. (2014). Circular migration: Triple win, or a new label for temporary migration? In G. Battistella (Ed.), (pp. 27–49). Springer.
5.
Chiavacci, D. (2025). Dam break in Japan’s immigration policy: The 2018 reform in a longterm perspective. Social Science Japan Journal, 28(1). https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/j....
6.
De Castro, C., Gadea Montesinos, M., Pedreño, A., & Ramírez Melgarejo, A. (2017). Coaliciones sociales y políticas en el desarrollo del sector agroexportador: Las frutas murcianas en las redes globales de producción agroalimentaria. Mundo Agrario, 18(37). https://doi.org/10.24215/15155....
7.
Fanjul, G. & Gálvez-Iniesta, I. (2020). Extranjeros, sin papeles e imprescindibles: Una fotografía de la inmigración irregular en España. Fundación PorCausa. https://porcausa.org/wp-conten....
8.
Fuhrmann-Aoyagi, M. B., Miura, K. & Watanabe, K. (2024). Sustainability in Japan’s agriculture: An analysis of current approaches. Sustainability, 16(2), 596. https://doi.org/10.3390/su1602....
9.
Gunji, S. (2021). 農業支援外国人受入事業活用の実際と外国人技能実習制度との並存：沖縄県の事例から (Nōgyō shien gaikoku jin ukeire jigyō katsuyō no jissai to gaikoku jin ginō jisshū seido to no heizon: Okinawa ken no jirei kara). 農業経営研究 (Nōgyō Keiei Kenkyū), 59(2), 79–84. https://doi.org/10.11300/fmsj.....
10.
Hennebry, J. L. & Preibisch, K. (2012). A model for managed migration? Re-examining best practices in Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program. International Migration, 50(S1). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468....
11.
Hiraoka, A. (1992). サトウキビ農業における外国人労働者の導入と実態 (Satōkibi nōgyō niokeru gaikokujin rōdōsha no dōnyū to jittai). In Sangoshō Chiiki Kenkyū Gurūpu (Ed.), 熱い心の島：サンゴ礁の風土誌 (Atsui kokoro no shima: Sangoshō no fudoshi) (pp. 125–136). Kokon Shoin.
13.
Lijphart, A. (1975). II. The comparable-cases strategy in comparative research. Comparative Political Studies, 8(2), 158–177. https://doi.org/10.1177/001041....
14.
Liu-Farrer, G. (2020). Immigrant Japan: Mobility and belonging in an ethno-nationalist society. Cornell University Press.
15.
López-Sala, A. (2016a). Producing temporariness, (re)producing precariousness: Regulation, rights and non-citizenship status of temporary immigrant workers. Arbor, 192(777), 1–4.
16.
López-Sala, A. (2016b). Induced circularity for selective workers: The case of seasonal labor mobility schemes in Spanish agriculture. Arbor, 192(777), 1–12.
17.
Macías Llaga, I., Márquez Domínguez, J.A., & Jurado Almonte, J.M. (2016). La contratación en origen de temporeros marroquíes para los campos españoles como experiencia de codesarrollo. Cuadernos Geográficos, 55(2), 173–194.
18.
Maclachlan, P.L. & Shimizu, K. (2022). Betting on the farm: Institutional change in Japanese agriculture. Cornell University Press.
19.
Matanle, P. & Rausch, A. (2011). Japan’s shrinking regions in the 21st century: Contemporary responses to depopulation and socioeconomic decline. Cambria Press.
20.
Matuszczyk, K. & Duszczyk, M. (2018). Bezpieczeństwo na rynku pracy jako perspektywa teoretyczna w badaniach nad migracjami zarobkowymi. Problemy Polityki Społecznej, 43, 25–42.
21.
Matuszczyk, K. (2024). Towards a good employership? Phased strategies of Polish farmers employing seasonal migrant workers. Journal of Rural Studies, 111, 103394. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrur....
22.
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. (2022)「. 外国人雇用状況」の届出状況まとめ（令和４年10月末現在） (“Gaikokujin koyō jōkyō” no tokedé jōkyō matomé). https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/new....
23.
Miyairi, T. (2022). 北海道における外国人労働者への依存深化と地域社会の課題：農業分野を中心に (Hokkaidō ni okeru gaikoku rōdōsha e no izon shinka to chiiki shakai no kadai: Nōgyō bunya o chūshin ni). 現代社会学研究 (Gendai Shakaigaku Kenkyū), 35, 21–38. https://doi.org/10.7129/hokkai....
24.
Molinero-Gerbeau, Y. & Avallone, G. (2016). Producing Cheap Food and Labour: Migrations and Agriculture in the Capitalistic World-Ecology. Social Change Review, 14(2), 121–148.
25.
Molinero-Gerbeau, Y. (2018). La privatización de los programas de migración temporal en España como efecto poscrisis. In J. Arango, R. Mahía, D. Moya, & E. Sánchez-Montijano (Eds.), Anuario Cidob de la Inmigración (pp. 284–206). Cidob.
26.
Molinero-Gerbeau, Y. (2020a). La creciente dependencia de mano de obra migrante para tareas agrícolas en el centro global. Una perspectiva comparada. Estudios Geográficos, 81(288), 1–27.
27.
Molinero-Gerbeau, Y. (2020b). Dos décadas desplazando trabajadores extranjeros al campo español: una revisión del mecanismo de contratación en origen. Panorama Social, 31, 141–153.
28.
Molinero-Gerbeau, Y. (2023). Periphery-core migrations and the global capitalist agriculture. In M. Atzeni, D. Azzellini, A. Mezzadri, P. Moore, & U. Apitzsch (Eds.), Handbook of Research on the Global Political Economy of Work (pp. 292–301). Edward Elgar Publishing.
29.
Molinero-Gerbeau, Y. (2025). State Thought and Migration: Analysing the Ideological Underpinnings of Temporary Migration Programmes. Genealogy, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/geneal....
30.
Money, J. (2025). The myth of the “triple win”: Questioning the impact of immigration on immigrants, origin, and destination countries. Political Science Quarterly, 140(2), 385–399. https://doi.org/10.1093/psquar....
31.
Moore, J.W. (2010). The end of the road? Agricultural revolutions in the capitalist worldecology, 1450–2010. Journal of Agrarian Change, 10(3), 389–413. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471....
32.
Moore, J.W. (2015). Capitalism in the web of life: Ecology and the accumulation of capital. Verso.
33.
OECD. (2022). Agricultural policy monitoring and evaluation 2022. OECD Publishing.
34.
Patel, R. (2013). The long green revolution. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 40(1), 1–63.
35.
Pécoud, A. (2015). Depoliticising migration: Global governance and international migration narratives. Palgrave Macmillan.
36.
Pécoud, A. (2021). Narrating an ideal migration world? An analysis of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. Third World Quarterly, 42(1), 16–33. https://doi.org/10.1080/014365....
37.
Ruíz Ramírez, C., Castillo-Rojas-Marcos, J., & Molinero-Gerbeau, Y. (2024). Essential but Invisible and Exploited: A literature review of migrant workers’ experiences in European agriculture. Oxfam Research Reports. https://www.oxfamintermon.org/....
38.
Sayad, A. (2004). The suffering of the immigrant. Polity Press. Servicio Público de Empleo Estatal (SEPE). (2024). Contratos registrados. Sector de actividad económica: agricultura y pesca.
39.
Statistics Bureau of Japan. (2022). 日本の統計 2022 (Nihon no tōkei 2022). https://www.stat.go.jp/english....
40.
Subdirección General de Gestión y Coordinación de Flujos Migratorios. (2023). Autorizaciones concedidas en el marco de los programas GECCO 2010-2022 por nacionalidad.
41.
Sunai, N. (2024). 日本の農業と非正規移住―なぜ技能実習生は受入企業から出ていくのか (Nihon no nōgyō to hiseiki ijū – Naze ginō jisshūsei wa ukeire kigyō kara dete iku no ka). 生活経済政策 (Seikatsu Keizai Seisaku), 324, 14–21. http://www.seikatsuken.or.jp/d....
42.
Valadas, C., Góis, P., & Marques, J.C. (2018). Migrants’ chances or choices in a sub-protective welfare regime? Social Policy Issues, 43, 65–83. https://www.problemypolitykisp....
43.
Winston, C. (2023). International norms as emergent properties of complex adaptive systems. International Studies Quarterly, 67(3). https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sq....
44.
World Bank. (n.d.). Population ages 65 and above (% of total). https://data.worldbank.org/ind....
45.
World Bank. (2025). Population ages 65 and above (% of total population): Spain. https://data.worldbank.org/ind....
| ISSN: | 1640-1808 |
We process personal data collected when visiting the website. The function of obtaining information about users and their behavior is carried out by voluntarily entered information in forms and saving cookies in end devices. Data, including cookies, are used to provide services, improve the user experience and to analyze the traffic in accordance with the Privacy policy. Data are also collected and processed by Google Analytics tool (more).
You can change cookies settings in your browser. Restricted use of cookies in the browser configuration may affect some functionalities of the website.
You can change cookies settings in your browser. Restricted use of cookies in the browser configuration may affect some functionalities of the website.
