Hossam el-Hamalawy's Library tagged Refugees → View Popular

Consider these two scenarios. The first is in Ireland in December 2005 when 100,000 Irish, Polish, Lithuanian and Latvian workers demonstrated together against attempts by bosses to recruit migrant workers on worse pay and conditions than Irish workers. The second is in the UK in January 2009 with hundreds of workers taking industrial action under the slogan of “British jobs for British workers”. The former reflects the possibility of solidarity and a rejection of “divide and rule”. The latter is an alarming situation in which fearful workers turn on “foreigners” as the UK economy haemorrhages jobs and plunges into a deepening crisi
Migrant workers play a distinct role in capitalism both as a “reserve army of labour” and as a means of raising the rate of exploitation.
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- The use of migrant workers also allows the receiver country to externalise the costs of renewing the labour force. The state uses migrant workers to fill gaps in the labour market but does not pay any of the costs of them or their families settling. For example, in the UK migrant workers from the new EU countries are denied benefits until they have worked there for 12 months. The new points system for immigrants (from outside to Europe) in the UK is a way of sifting workers who are highly skilled and ensuring that no one who arrives is going to be a “burden” on the state
- On a global scale the unevenness of capitalism can set in motion a whole chain of migration, with ever more degrading treatment the lower you are on the ladder. The gap left by welders who left the Gdansk shipyard in Poland was filled by workers from India and North Korea, working up to 16 hours a day under the control and surveillance of the North Korean Communist Party
- The use of migrant workers is inextricably linked to the neoliberal agenda of increasing labour “flexibility” to ratchet up the rate of exploitation
- One section of the ruling class does not benefit from migrant workers and therefore does not want to bear the costs, while another section has been keen to defend the benefits of immigration
- Contrary to much rhetoric about globalisation, states have played a central and active role in managing outward and inward flows of labour across their boundaries. In the 19th century, for example, the active export of Europe’s rural poor was facilitated by states that lifted restrictions on emigration, while state bodies, trade unions, philanthropic and colonisation societies made financial assistance available

20 Mar 09

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0320/p07s03-wogn.html

Islamophobia in Norway

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Islamophobia Racism Veil Norway refugees migration police women

20 Feb 09

مركز الدراسات الاشتراكية: عرض فيلم عودة الحكى

The Center for Socialist Studies is screening the film: Awdet el-Hakey, this Monday, 23 Feb, 6pm, followed by a presentation by Yehia Abu Safie, expert on Palestinian refugees…

arabist.net/...d9%84%d9%85-%d8%b9%d9%88%d8%af - Preview

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