Working From Home – A Photo Essay

These migrant workers travel wherever they can find employment. Some just for a season before returning home, others from city to city or country to country constantly looking for work. The photojournalist Irving Villegas has been documenting the lives of seasonal workers in different countries

Germany

Asparagus season

Every year about 270,000 workers come to Germany for the asparagus harvest, most of them from Poland and Romania. Without these people, it would be impossible to reap the crop because most unemployed Germans are not willing to do the job. They work every day for 10 hours, starting at 5am. They earn 27 to 57 cents for each kilo harvested depending on the size of the asparagus

In the grass, lying in the shade of a tree, a woman takes a 10-minute break. Her room key is hung around her neck so she doesn’t lose it

The field work in the sun, rain and cold in Fuhrberg, near Hanover, is backbreaking.

Visit The Guardian to read more and to see the entire Photo Essay