This research connects macroeconomics to a micro example of reality lived on the ground by looking at these issues in the context of a female temporary migration programme located within the agriculture sector in Huelva, Spain.Over the decades, Huelva’s strawberry sector has experienced an enormous transformation, a consequence of its insertion into a globalised capitalist model of intensive market-orientated agriculture production. Huelva has become the second largest strawberry producer in the world; this boom (together with the expansion of other sectors such as construction and tourism and Spain’s entry into the EU) has helped to take Huelva (and the whole Andalucía region) out of its historic under-development. But this has come at a high price.