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Since the 1980s a part of social researches has focused on structural transformations and social and subjective conditions of immigrant workers in Southern Europe agriculture (Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece). This paper is the result of a comparative analysis of these researches and it highlights the common aspects in the different territorial contexts, showing the main features of the labor and social condition of migrant workers. In conclusion, the paper recognizes that migrant labor has become the central element in the local agriculture, but this emergence has not been followed by a political and societal recognition and, so, migrant workers have remained at the margins of local policies and societies, constituting a new international proletariat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the role of law in the management of conflicts in multicultural societies, particularly those related to migration. It discusses the dichotomy between punitive legal rules and the non-regulation by law of certain practices linked to respecting and guaranteeing human rights. For this purpose, the example is taken of the legal regulation of genital mutilation, polygamous marriage, use of the burka, the niqab, the hijab, the chador and the shyala in public spaces and the presence of religious items in schools. The point is to show that the law should only intervene through legislation to preserve democratic principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]