Research and Orientation Workshop and International Conference
on
'The State of the Global Protection System for Refugees and Migrants'

Calcutta Research Group, (25-30 November 2018)

Module D

 

Module D. Refugee and Immigrant Economies: Privatisation of Care and Protection

Coordinators: Professor Ranabir Samaddar and Professor Samita Sen

 

Abstract

 

Labour migration has been a feature of global capitalism since the beginning. This paper explores the historical background of labour migration in connection with the rise and development of capitalism and leads on to a discussion of labour migration under present conditions of neo-liberalisation and global market economy. In its discussion of historical forms of labour migration, the paper dwells on the themes of indentured labour and other forms of semi-coerced migration from colonies, semi-colonies, and other parts of the world. The second half of the nineteenth century was an age of labour mobility required for plantation, railway lines and telegraph, and mining. This demand of labour was met through a system of indentured labour migration. Indentured labour was sought as replacement for newly freed African slave labour. The planters preferred unsettled male indentured workers over locally settled labour, as the former seemed a better guarantee of servitude. There were also other forms of coercive labour export like forced migration of children, migration of single women, exportation of coolie labour etc.

If the earlier period of globalisation marked by industrial capitalism called for massive supply of labour forming its underbelly, the contemporary period of globalization is marked by unprecedented financialisation of capital and other resources (including land) and calls for similar supply of labour forming the underbelly of the beast today. In today’s global post-colonial setting, the place of the plantation and railway construction industries of the nineteenth century has been taken over by the ubiquitous care industry and construction industries. Thousands of migrant workers serving worldwide from the United States to the Middle East to South East Asia to the Far East as masons, plumbers, coolies, nurses, ayahs, sex workers, workers in entertainment and construction industry keep the machinery of neoliberal economy going. The discussion also emphasizes the parallel process of emergence of basic technologies of governing population flows and trying to achieve in each case the right composition of the population, the right mix, as it is termed now, leading to partitions and new boundary making exercises.

The paper highlights how gender was of central concern in recruitment operations as well as labour deployment in the indentured system and other forms of labour migration more generally and how long distance migration in turn unsettled gender hierarchies. The paper touches on the issue of sex labour which in today’s world is a migrant dominated field. It points to the inadequacy of the predominant discourse of trafficking which often views migration of sex workers as a form of ‘modern slavery’. It deliberates on how the boundaries between ‘free’ migration and trafficking are often fuzzy and patriarchal ‘protection’ against trafficking can further contribute to the immobilisation of women, especially in societies where regulation of women’s mobility is a key element of patriarchal control.

Finally, the discussion is also concerned with the nature of immigrant economy in global capitalism today. Literature on immigrant economies are concerned with processes of labour absorption within western state/society. In these writings, the organic link between the immigrant as an economic actor and the global capitalist economy escapes analysis. Even when considered as an economic actor, refugees are often not considered as labour. This paper emphasizes the need for seeing the refugee primarily as a labouring subject, who often work outside the pale of ‘formal’ economy and/or without political rights. While a large part of the existing literature on the subject deal with what can be called the internalities of the immigrant economy (thus their ethnic composition, hierarchies, location, survival techniques, etc.), here the emphasis is on the externalities. Externality in this context means the broader forces and dynamics that influence such internal configuration and shape labour markets. A consideration of the externalities suggests four interactive relations impacting on refugee economies: (a) The deeply close relation between refugees, other victims of forced migration, and the illegal immigrants; likewise the interface of classic refugees and the environmental migrants as the constituting elements of an informal labour market; (b) The similarly close relation between refugees, illegal immigrants, and the internally displaced as labouring subjects; (c) The connection between the refugee economy and the informal economy as a whole; and finally (d) the incredibly dense network between formal and informal economies, shaping certain types of economic activities as in care and entertainment industry, which feature the refugee and the immigrant as the labouring subject, and which borders on both formal and informal economies.

The question frequently asked in the existing literature is about the impact of refugees on the host economy, and not, about why economies cannot do without the so-called refugee economies that supply informal labour for the host economy. It also strikes us that migration analysts rarely consider together the lack of the migrants’ entry in formal political arena accompanied by entry in the informal and sometimes formal labour market. Immigrant labour’s autonomy, more known as ‘autonomy of migration’ allows the migrant to cope with this dichotomous world. For long, it was a case of political opportunity, but economic closure; now it is the case of economic opening (entry in the informal labour market), but political closure; yet the migrant as the footloose labouring subject copes with this upside-down world of politics/economics with his/her autonomy to move. The ‘autonomy of migration,’ which also means among others the willingness and the capability of the migrants to move on from one condition to another, one job to another, one economic situation to another, and one economy to another indicates the heterogeneity of labour forms. Such heterogeneous labour are rendered invisible to the public eye and function without the protection of welfare benefits, in the face of continuous threats of deportation.

 

Draft of Full Paper: CLICK HERE

Participants

 

Sl.No. Name & Details of the Participants Country Photo Research Articles Comments by Coordinator
1.

Apala Kundu, Calcutta Research Group || Email: apala@mcrg.ac.in
Bionote: Apala Kundu is Research and Programme Assistant at Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group. She completed her B.A. and M.A. in English from Presidency University. In her post-graduation dissertation, Apala attempted a comparative analysis of Western and Eastern religious systems through a study of Kieślowski’s Decalogue and Peter Brook’s Mahabharata, drawing on Levinasian understanding of ethics as the lens of her study. Her areas of interest are varied and include postcolonialism, migration and diaspora studies, gender and sexuality studies (including queer studies) and graphic narratives. She has presented research done on these areas at various national, international and UGC-sponsored conferences and seminars in the country. Apala has previously worked as Conference Assistant at CRG on the project ‘Capital in the East: A Conference on Marx’s Capital after 150 Years of Its Publication’.

 India

Immigrant Economies and ‘Economic War’: Literary Reflections on the Expulsion of Asians from East Africa

 

 

  
2.

Irene Peano, Institute Of Social Sciences, University Of Lisbon                
Email: irene.peano@gmail.com
Bionote: Irene Peano trained as a social anthropologist at the University of Cambridge, where she received her PhD. She is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, working in the ERC project 'The Colour of Labour: The racialised lives of migrants'. She has previously held post-doctoral positions at the University of Bologna and at the University of Bucharest. For more than ten years, she has been engaged in research on the exploitation of migrants, with a specific focus on sex work and agricultural labour, and on forms of resistance, to which she is actively committed. She has done field research in Nigeria, Italy and Romania.

 Italy Refugeeisation of the agricultural labour force? Humanitarian spectacles in and around Italian agro-industrial enclaves

Full Paper
 

  
3. Janaina Galvao , Independent Researcher || Email: janainagalvaobaires@gmail.com
Bionote: Janaina Galvao has 10 years of progressively responsible professional experience for organizations such as UNHCR, ILO, UNICEF and ICRC, both in Latin America and West Africa. She is a transdisciplinary humanitarian worker who has performed in the fields of Protection, External Relations, Programme and Livelihoods but who is also passionate about the political economy of migration and protection systems. In 2008 she attended the IV Winter Course on Forced Migration promoted by MCRG in Kolkata and afterwards she held other relevant trainings on labor migration, needs assessments in emergencies, protection of LGBTI refugees and community-based protection. She is married and has two children.		 Brazil Bias towards skilled migration in Brazil during the Lula Era: Influence of the Knowledge-Based Economy Paradigm

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4. Jhumpa Bose , P. N. Das College 
Email: jhumpabose49@gmail.com
Bionote: Jhumpa Bose has done her master’s in History from West Bengal State University. Her research interests lie in Migration Studies and labour history. She has presented a paper on migration in a conference at Paschim Bango Itihas Samsad in Kolkata. ... continue		 India Migration of Labour in Late Colonial Bengal: Urbanization and Socio-Economic Condition in Barrackpore Industrial Zone

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5.

Shatabdi Das, Calcutta Research Group || Email: shatabdi@mcrg.ac.in
Bionote: Shatabdi Das is Research and Programme Assistant at Calcutta Research Group. She did her Graduation (with Honours) in Geography, from Banaras Hindu University and then went on to complete her Masters in Geography (with specialisation in Environmental Geography) from University of Calcutta. Having also studied the discipline of Urban Management and Planning, from the university, her research interests lie in the dynamics of urbanisation and their impacts on the urban environment. In her post-graduation dissertation, she has worked on the hazards of coal mining in the Raniganj Coalfields and continues with her research focussed on the very many implications of developmental changes on physical and social environment of urban locales. She was Junior Research Fellow at the Centre for Urban Economic Studies under University of Calcutta from August 2013 to October 2014. Besides participating in workshops along with paper presentations at national and international conferences, she has published research papers on urban and environmental issues in international journal and seminar proceedings volume. Shatabdi is also currently pursuing her Doctoral research in Geography from University of Calcutta on the impacts of industrial and urban development in Asansol-Durgapur region. She has post-graduation teaching experience in Geography and is drawn to the study of the varied genres of music, culture, art and architecture through travel and photography.

 India Migrants, Work and Sustenance in the Coalfields of Raniganj  

Full Paper

  

 

Readings

 

1.  Agier, Michel, Managing the Undesirables: Refugee camps and Humanitarian Government (London: Polity Press, 2011) 

2. Ambrose, Stephen E., Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869 (New York, Simon & Schuster; 2001)

3.  Anderson, Bridget, “Migration, Immigration Controls and the Fashioning of Precarious Workers,” Work, Employment, Society, Volume 24 (2), 2010, pp. 300–317

4.  Andrijasevic, Rutvica, “The Difference Borders Make: (Il)legality, Migration and Trafficking in Italy among Eastern European Women in Prostitution”, in S. Ahmed, C. Castaneda, A.M. Fortier, and M. Sheller, (eds.), Uprootings/ Regroundings: Questions of Home and Migration (New York: Berg, 2003), pp. 251–272

5. Baubock, Rainer, (ed.), From Aliens to Citizens: Redefining the Status of Immigrants in Europe (Aldershot, Ashgate and European Centre Vienna, 1994, pp. 3-28)

6. Bauder, Harald, Labour Movement: How Migration Regulates Labour Markets (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006)

7. Behal, Rana P. and Marcel van der Linden (eds.), Coolies, Capital, and Colonialism: Studies in Indian Labour History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006)

8. Betts, Alex, Louise Bloom, Josiah Kaplan, and Naohiko Omata, Refugee Economies: Forced Displacement and Development (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017)

9.  Bian, David Howard, Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad (New York, Penguin Books, 2000)

10.   Bjorn Rother, Gaelle Pierre, Davide Lombardo, Risto Herrala, Priscilla Toffano, Eric Roos, Greg Auclair, and Karina Manasseh, “The Economic Impact of Conflicts and the Refugee Crisis in the Middle East and North Africa”, IMF Staff Paper, SDN/16/08, September 2016, pp. 9-18

11.   Bloch, Alice and Sonia McKay, Living on the Margins: Undocumented Migrants in a Global City (Bristol: Policy Press, 2017)

12.   Bloch, Alice, nando Sigona, and Roger Zetter, Sans Papiers: The Social and Economic Lives of Young Undocumented Migrants (London: Pluto Press, 2014)

13.   Bose, Pradip Kumar, Refugees in West Bengal: Institutional Practices, Contested Identities (Kolkata: Calcutta Research Group, 2002) 

14.   Breman, Jan, Taming the Coolie Beast: Plantation Society and the Colonial Order in Southeast Asia (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989)

15.   Castles, Stephen and Godula Kosack, Immigrant Workers and Class Structure in Western Europe (London: Institute of Race Relations, 1973)

16.   Castles, Stephen and Mark J. Miller, The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World (Hampshire, Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2003), chapter 8, “Migrants and Minorities in the Labour Force”, pp. 178-197

17.   Castles, Stephen, “Migration” in David Theo Goldberg and John Solomos (eds.), A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2002), pp. 570-572

18.   Chambers, Robert, “Rural Refugees in Africa: What the Eye Does not See”, Disasters, Volume 3 (4), pp. 381-392

19.   Cole, Robert and Senator Mark Hatfield, Uprooted Children: Early Life of Migrant Farm Workers (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1970)

20.   Davis, Mike, El Nino Famines: Late Victorian Holocausts and the Making of the Third World (London: Verso, 2002)

21.   Gatrell, Peter, The Making of the Modern Refugee (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), chapter 3, “Europe Uprooted: Refugee Crisis in the Mid-Century and ‘Durable Solutions’”, pp. 89-117

22.   Geyer, Mary (ed.), Behind the Wall: The Women of the Destitute Asylum, Adelaide, 1852-1918, published on the occasion of the Women’s Suffrage Centenary in South Australia, 1894-1994 (Adelaide: Migration Museum, 1994)

23.   Hewison, Kevin and Ken Young (eds.), Transnational Migration and Work in Asia (London: Routledge, 2006)

24.   Kara, Siddarth, Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery (New York: Columbia University Press, 2017)

25.   Lewis, Mary, The Boundaries of the Republic: Migrant Rights and the Limits of Universalism in France, 1918-1940 (Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007)

26.   Marshall, Thomas Hamphrey, Citizenship and Social Class: And Other Essays (Cambridge University Press, 1950)

27.   Mezzadra, Sandro and Brett Neilson, Border as Method, or the Multiplication of Labour(Durham: Duke University Press, 2013)

28.   Montclos, Perouse de Marc-Antoine and Peter Mwangi Kagwanja, “Refugee Camps or Cities? Socio-economic Dynamics of the Dadaab and Kakuma Camps in Northern Kenya”, Journal of Refugee Studies, Volume 13 (2), 2000, pp. 205-222

29.   Ong, Aihwa, Buddha is Hiding: Refugees, Citizenship, the New America, California Series in Public Anthropology, 2003

30.   Papadopoulos, D., N. Stephenson, V. Tsianos, Escape Routes. Control and Subversion in the 21st Century(London: Pluto Press, 2008), p. 202

31.   Parker, Roy, Uprooted: The Shipment of Poor Children to Canada, 1867 to 1917 (Bristol: Policy Press at the University of Bristol, 2008) 

32.   Piore, Michael J., Birds of Passage: Migrant Labor and Industrial Societies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979

33.   Rosenberg, Clifford, Policing Paris: The Origins of Modern Immigration Control between the Wars (Ithaca, Cornell: Cornell University Press, 2006)

34.   Samaddar, Ranabir, The Marginal Nation: Transborder Migration from Bangladesh to West Bengal (New Delhi: Sage, 1999), chapter

35.   Samaddar, Ranabir, Migrants and the Neoliberal City (Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan, 2018)  

36.   Samaddar, Ranabir, “Borders of Labour and Refugee Economies”, Refugee Watch, 50, December 2017, pp. 1-13

37.   Samaddar, Ranabir, “The Ecological Migrant in the Postcolonial Time” in Andrew Baldwin and Giovanni Bettini (eds.), Life Adrift: Climate Change, Migration, Critique (London: Rowman and Littlefield, 2017), pp. 171-193

38.   Samaddar, Ranabir, “Returning to the Histories of the Late 19th and Early 20thCentury Immigration”, Economic and Political Weekly, Volume 50 (2), 10 January 2015, pp.  

39.   Sassen, Saskia, Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy (Harvard: Belknap Press, 2014)

40.   Taylor, Edward, J., Mateusz J. Filipski, Mohamed Alloush, Anubhab Gupta, Ruben Irvin Rojas Valdes, and Ernesto Gonzalez-Estrada, “Economic Impact of Refugees”, PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), Volume 113 (27), 2016, pp. 7449-7453

41.   Tilly, Charles, “Transplanted Networks” in Virginia Yans-McLaughlin, ed., Immigration Reconsidered. History, Sociology, and Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), chapter 3, pp. 79-95

42.   Torpey, John, The Invention of Passport: Surveillance, Citizenship, and the State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999) 

43.   The State of the World’s Midwifery, 2011: Delivering Health, Saving Lives, United Nations Population Fund, New York, 2011 

44.   “An Economic Take on the Refugee Crisis: A Macroeconomic Assessment for the EU”, European Commission, Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, Institutional Paper 033, 2016 

45.   “Syrian Refugees in Turkish Garment Supply Chains”, Report by Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, February 2016

46.   “Syrian Refugees Working in Turkey’s garment Sector”, Report by Ethical Trading Initiative

47.   Report by TAMPEP (European Network for HIV/STI Prevention and Health Promotion among Migrant Sex Workers), “Sex Work in Europe: A mapping of the Prostitution Scene in 25 European Countries” (Amsterdam: Tampep International Foundation, 2009)  

International Migration Review

48.  Esser, Hurmut, “Does the ‘New’ Immigration Require a ‘New’ Theory of Intergenerational  Integration?,” International Migration Review, Volume 38(2), 2004

49.  Field, Serge, “Labour Force Trends and Immigration in Europe,” International Migration Review, Volume 39 (3), 2005, pp 637-662

50.  Freeman, Gary, “Immigrant Incorporation in Western Economies,” International Migration Review, Volume 38(2), 2004, pp 945-969

51.  Guang, Lei, “The State Connection in China’s Rural-Urban Migration,” International Migration Review, Volume 39 (2), 2005, pp 354-380

52.  Guarnizo, Luis Eduardo, “The Economics of Transnational Living,” International Migration Review, Volume 37(2), 2003, pp 666-699

53.  Han, Shin-Kap, “Ashore on the Land of Joiners: Intergenerational Social incorporation of Immigrants”, International Migration Review, Volume 38 (1), 2004

54.  Krissman, Fred, “Sin Coyote Ni Patron: Why the ‘Migrant Network’ Fails to Explain International Migration,” International Migration Review, Volume 39(1), 2005, pp 4-44

55.  Lewin-Epstein, Noah, Moshe Semyonov, Irena Kogan and Richard Awanner, “Institutional Structure and Immigrant Integration: A Comparative Study of Immigrants’ Labour Market Attainment in Canada and Israel,” International Migration Review, Volume 37(2), 2003, pp 389-420

56.  Liang, Zai and Toni Zhang, “Emigration, Housing Conditions and Social Stratification in China,” International Migration Review, Volume 38(1), 2004, pp 686-708

57.  Logan, John R, Richard D Alba and Brian J Stults, “Enclaves and Entrepreneurs: Assessing the Payoff for Immigrants and Minorities,” International Migration Review, Volume 37(2), 2003, pp 344-388

58.  Mata, Fernando and Ravi Pendakur, “Immigration, Labor Force Integration and the Pursuit of Self-Employment,”  International Migration Review, Volume 33(2), 1999, pp 378- 403 [D]

59.  Montgomery, J. Randall, “Components of Refugee Adaptation,” International Migration Review, Volume 30(3), 1996, pp 679 -702

60.  Parrado, Emilio A and Marcela Cerruti, “Labour migration between Developing countries: the case of Paraguay and Argentina,” International Migration Review, Volume 37(1), 2003, pp 101-132

61.  Pessar, Patricia and Sarah J Mahler, “Transnational Migration: Bringing Gender In,” International Migration Review, Volume 37(2), 2003, pp 812-846

62.  Pieke, Frank N and Mette Thuno “Institutionalising, Recent Rural Emigration from China to Europe: New Transnational Villages in Fujian,” International Migration Review, Volume 39 (2), 2005, pp 485-514

63. Semyonov, Moshe & Anastasia Gorodzeisky, “Labour Migration, Remittances and Household Income: A Comparison between Filipino and Filipina Overseas Workers,” International Migration Review, Volume 39 (1), 2005, pp 45-68