18 Dec Cross-country report – Participatory Action Research (PAR) with migrant workers in farm to fork sectors in Amsterdam, Seville and Wroclaw
Participatory Action Research (PAR) with migrant workers in farm to fork sectors in Amsterdam, Seville and Wroclaw
One innovative aspect of DignityFIRM is the integration of a dedicated Work Package on Participatory Action Research (PAR). This reflects both a methodological commitment and a political stance: migrants draw on forms of agency, knowledge, and expertise rooted in lived experience that must be incorporated at every stage of policy design and implementation. Treating migrant workers merely as “subjects” of research reinforces extractive practices and entrenches knowledge hierarchies; recognising them as co-researchers, by contrast, asserts their rightful role as political actors capable of producing theory, formulating demands and shaping interventions.
DignityFIRM established a work package dedicated to PAR, implemented through three national case studies led by grassroots organisations in the Netherlands, Spain, and Poland. Each organisation contracted and trained a peer researcher, each a formerly undocumented migrant with direct experience in Farm-to-Fork sectors. These peer researchers facilitated focus groups with workers in similar situations to identify problems, analyse working and living conditions, and explore individual and collective strategies for resistance. The findings gathered during these processes form the empirical foundation for the project’s action phase, during which concrete initiatives were designed and implemented at the local level.
How to cite: Legarda Dìaz-Aguado, I. (2025). Participatory Action Research (PAR) with migrant workers in farm to fork sectors in Amsterdam, Seville and Wroclaw. DignityFIRM. https://doi.org/.10.5281/zenodo.17912330
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