The eternal return of normalityInvisibility and essentiality of migrant farmworkers before and during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Drawing on ethnographic data collected during and after the national lockdown, this article focuses on the motivations behind the amnesty approved in 2021 by the government as part of the “Decreto Rilancio”, which was aimed at regularising the status of undocumented migrant workers employed in those sectors of the labour market considered essential (agriculture, domestic and care work). Through the categories of essentiality and invisibility, the ambivalent role played by migrants within the labour market and the national economy are investigated, with a particular focus on the agri-food sector. Above all, the article focuses on the paradoxes made explicit by the amnesty introduced during the pandemic.