Understanding the interplay between structural and systemic vulnerability: the case of migrant agricultural workers during the Covid-19 pandemic

Disasters and emergencies, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, are known to expose and exacerbate the vulnerabilities of our societal systems. In this short commentary, we propose to distinguish between structural vulnerability, defined as being created within a given system by the interactions of different social, economic and cultural conditions and systemic vulnerability, that emerges out of the complex net of relationships between societal systems. We take the case of the migrant agricultural workers living in informal settlements in Southern Italy to exemplify this distinction and to show the interplay between these two forms of vulnerability during the Covid-19 pandemic.