THE GLOBAL MIGRANT PRECARIAT LABOUR, CITIZENSHIP, CIVIL SOCIETY. Carl-Ulrik Schierup & Aleksandra Ålund Linköping University, REMESO

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1 THE GLOBAL MIGRANT PRECARIAT LABOUR, CITIZENSHIP, CIVIL SOCIETY Carl-Ulrik Schierup & Aleksandra Ålund Linköping University, REMESO

2 Precarity Academic term Emblem for resistance Precarity. Expanding field of academic inquiry. Heritage of Bourdieu (precarité). Influential in migration and ethnic studies Precarious work. Contingency, Lack of security in terms of employment, income and collective representation, etc. A truncated citizenship. Demise of rights (e.g. Sassen, Delanty) constitutive element of the new global disorder, to which it is very functional (Ricceri 2011). Rivalling social exclusion Core of a global precariat. Migrants and children of migrants overrepresented and particularly vulnerable. Alter-globalisation emblem. Label for self-ascription and political identity (empty signifier) Contested scientific neo-logism. Dangerous class (Standing) or populist interpellation (Semour)?

3 Political Economy of Precarisation Process of becoming precariat (through neo-liberal Globalization) (re-)commodification of labour Accumulation through dispossession corporate re-structuring, neo-liberal de- & re-regulation, stripping labour and social rights. Taming the unions informalisation. Management strategy for flexibilisation off-shoring, outsourcing, sub-contracting (Harvey) asymmetric inclusion (gender, ethnicity, race )

4 The Migrant Precariat Between Precarious Work and a Truncated Citizenship Undocumented Migrant Workers in Informal Labour Markets Guest Workers and Circular Migrants Managed Migration as Global Labour Force Management Refugees and Asylum Seekers Between Recognition and the Informal Economy Immigrants & Ethnic Minorities Exposed to Discrimination, Racism and Segregation

5 A Migrant Precariat? The Work-Citizenship Nexus Precarious work Migrant Precariat Truncated. Citizenship Labour Market Restructuring, Deregulation, Informalisation of Employment and Management Growth of irregular and segmented labour markets Contingent employment Lack of protection and security at work Unequal structuration of risk Hyper-exploitation Illegalised Undocumented Irregular Temporary workers & Asylum seekers Racialised migrants & minorities with full formal citizenship exposed to discrimination, racism Asymmetric inclusion: Segregation along Lines of ethnicity, gender and age Legal status: Exclusion from citizenship Formal vs. substantial rights Discrimination & racism Exclusion from collective representation

6 Precarisation and its Contestation A contemporary double movement The Downside of Flexibilisation Precarisation of Work and of Citizenship Growth of a Gender and Ethnically Segmented Global Precariat Migrants Core of the Precariat Between Government and Governance Widening Field for Civil Society in Governance Local, National, Transnational Alter Globalisation movement Questioning Precarisation Emerging Transnational Movements for Migrants Rights ( A Countermovement of the Precariat? )

7 Precariat Identity, Agency, Mobilisation Identity Politics Racism Extremism Secterism? Quo Vadis? Alter globalisation Movements Social movement unionism Informal livelihood Strategies & Acts of citizenship

8 Contentious Situations South Africa Sweden Turkey

9 Precariat Identity, Agency, Mobilisation Identity Politics Racism Extremism Secterianism? Quo Vadis? Alter globalisation Movements Social movement unionism Informal livelihood Strategies & Acts of citizenship

10 Precariat Identity, Agency, Mobilisation Radical Identity Politics Racism Nationalism Fundamentalism Quo Vadis? Democratic Countermovement of Civil Society Informal livelihood Strategies & Acts of citizenship

11 New Social Movements for For Civic and Human Rights in an Another World Action and Organisation for a Cosmopolitan Utopia Occupy movement. We the 99 Percent. Justice for the precariat. (Populist interpellation for alternative world Order) World Social Forum. Staging alternatives to Neoliberal Globalisation World Social Forum for Migration and Development & Peoples Global Action for Migration, Development and Human Rights Migrants Rights International Migrant Forum in Asia Claims for migrants rights and labour rights as human rights & development vs. migration. De-commodification of Migrant Labour Respect. Decent work for domestic workers (ILO convention) Picum. Platform for International Cooperation on Irregular Migrants ENAR European Network Against Racism (linking up with EU)

12 Claims for Global Standards Migrant Organisations, Unions and Advocacy Organisations Appealing for a Human Rights Based Governance on Migration We are human beings with rights to mobility, freedom of speech, decent work and social protection not a commodity (PGA platform 2010)

13 A Global Governance Regime on Migration Governance of Migration Global Forum for Migration and Development What Space is there for Civil Society?

14 Situated Perspectives Options and Trajectories of Civil Society Community Unionism Integrated Social Movement Labour Rights as Human Rights Trade Unions WORK Organization CITIZENSHIP Human rights Civic Rights & Migrant organisations Bread and Butter No Integration Identity Politics

15 International Labour Movement Makeover beyond North and South (Munck 2011) Convergence through Brazilianisation and shared precarisation Internationalism starting at home. Recruiting migrants, and advancing their cause, it will assume the broader mantle of democratic transformation Overcoming economistic labour strategy. Collaboration with social movements for civic and human rights Social movement Unionism. Critical source of power, in the workplace and in civil society, taking participation beyond representative democracy and passive citizenship to new forms of participation DEFENDING THE NECESSITY OF UTOPIAN THINKING Negation of basic humanity charges moral outrage, which can, under certain conditions produce movements new conception of globalizing the local, namely, its construction through a networked linkage between local places across geographic space in a struggle to build power through spatial scale. (Lambert 2010)

16 False Optimism in Countermovement as Utopia. Polanyi vs. Marx Flaws in Polanyi s Great Transformation Unfounded belief in the power of ideas Undertheorised notion of Society and its spontaneous self defense Losing sight of the imperatives of capital accumulation behind resurgence of the market (could never imagine neo-liberal globalisation) Reducing state to society, (Burawoy 2010) Focus shifting from exploitation to commodification, from production to markets, from classes to society [their] manifesto for a new world it has little to do with labor in the age of insecurity Some sort of global countermovement may be necessary for human survival, but there is no historical necessity for it to appear... There may be small counter-movements, small rather than great transformations, mopping up operations after every (un)natural disaster, but it is not clear how a succession of small transformations will turn into a great transformation (Burawoy 2010)

17 Changing Conditions for Collective Action State and Civil Society in Neoliberal Globalisation Upheavals take place in dead end streets. The future belongs to those who recognise the possible before it becomes obvious Berthold Brecht Striking Mining Workers in Marinata, South Africa, 2012

18 A Contemporary Countermovement? Between State Regulation and Global Governance States, Corporations, International organisations Social Movements The Migrant Precariat seeking a balance between market forces and a rights based migration regime for a regulation of the market and the primacy of social needs between informal livelihood strategies and organisation for labour rights & human rights

19 Thank you!

20 Precariat is not a class The precariat is not a class, and its widespread acceptance as a cultural meme has nothing to do with the claim that it is. Rather, it is a particular kind of populist interpellation which operates on a real, critical antagonism in today s capitalism subjectifying one as a member of the people in opposition to the power bloc. (Seymour 2012)