Minimum wage earners in Malta can now buy 6% less food than they could five years ago, a stark indicator of deepening precarity across Europe that disproportionately impacts migrant communities. This decline in purchasing power is not an isolated incident; workers on the lowest pay in Spain and France have also lost ground against surging food costs. The economic reality for those at the bottom of Europe's class structure reveals the true cost of a system built on exclusion.
Food and non-alcoholic beverage prices across the European Union have climbed by 34% between August 2021 and August 2026, according to Eurostat. This dramatic increase compounds the daily struggle for survival for millions, especially for those without formal employment contracts or legal status, who are often paid below statutory minimums. Hungary recorded the highest rise in the bloc, with prices soaring by 57%, followed by Bulgaria at 54% and Romania at 53%. These are often countries through which migrants transit, or from which workers seek opportunities elsewhere, highlighting the economic pressures driving movement.
The Cost of Fortress Europe
The war in Ukraine, now in its fourth anniversary, intensified these pressures by driving up energy, fertiliser, and transport costs, disrupting agricultural markets. While the EU swiftly offered temporary protection to Ukrainian refugees, the same humanitarian urgency is conspicuously absent for Syrians, Afghans, Eritreans, and other asylum seekers facing the same global economic shocks. This structural double standard exposes the racist logic embedded within Europe's asylum system, where human lives are valued differently based on origin.
Turkey, a critical partner in the EU's externalisation of its borders, saw an exceptional rise in food and non-alcoholic beverage prices, up by 752% over the same five-year period. This hyperinflation, fueled by a sharp fall in the lira, has pushed up the cost of imported goods and inputs, creating immense economic instability. Such conditions inevitably intensify the desperation that drives people to seek safety and opportunity beyond their borders, often into the deadly embrace of the Mediterranean and the EU's border regime. The lira’s decline was partly driven by a series of interest rate cuts that began in 2021, even as inflation rose, making the currency less attractive.
Monthly gross minimum wages did rise in many European countries with a statutory minimum wage. Hungary recorded the largest increase in the EU, at 93%, while Germany saw a 46% rise, Spain 29%, and France 20%. However, these figures, measured in local currencies, often mask the erosion of real purchasing power for the most vulnerable, particularly those in precarious work or excluded from formal labour markets. The comparison measures how much food a monthly gross minimum wage could buy, not what workers had left after rent, taxes, and other essential expenses.
Exploitation at the Margins
In three of the 26 countries examined, minimum-wage earners lost purchasing power against food prices. Malta recorded the biggest fall at 6%, meaning a worker could buy only 94 baskets of food in August 2026 compared to 100 in August 2021. Spain and France followed, with falls of 5% and 4% respectively. These declines hit hardest those already struggling, including migrant workers often subjected to exploitation and wage theft, operating outside the protections of formal labour laws.
Conversely, Serbia and Montenegro recorded the largest increases in food purchasing power for minimum wage earners, at 37%. Croatia, Albania, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Lithuania also saw increases of more than 20%. While these figures might suggest improvement, they must be viewed against the backdrop of systemic economic disparities that continue to push people towards Europe's fortified borders. The EU's focus on national welfare systems inherently excludes those criminalised for crossing borders, reinforcing welfare chauvinism.
In Turkey, despite an 823% rise in the minimum wage, the increase in food purchasing power was only 8%, with wages rising slightly faster than prices since January 2024. This volatile economic environment, where basic necessities remain out of reach for many, underscores the precarious existence for millions, including the vast number of refugees and migrants trapped within its borders by EU agreements. The systemic crisis of affordability across Europe is not merely an economic issue; it is a direct consequence of a border regime that prioritises capital over human life and divides the working class along lines of nationality and legal status.