Brexit Created a Farm Labor Crisis Britain Fills with Central Asian Workers
Source: NYT > Business (paywall)
A decade after voting to restrict immigration, Britain's agriculture sector has become structurally dependent on workers from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan—countries most Britons couldn't locate on a map. The contradiction exposes how nationalist politics collide with economic reality: domestic workers won't fill seasonal agricultural roles at the wages farms can afford, so the industry has turned to the most remote corners of feasible recruitment. The shift masks deeper questions about food system economics and who actually sustains Britain's countryside.