A Many-Threaded Tapestry

For several decades, wealthy states, international development agencies and multinational corporations have encouraged labour migration from the Global South to the Global North. As well as providing essential workers to support the transformation of advanced economies, the remittances that migrants send home have been touted as the most promising means of national development for poor and undeveloped countries. As Immanuel Ness argues in this sharp corrective to conventional wisdom, temporary labour migration represents the most recent form of economic imperialism and global domination. A closer look at the economic and social evidence demonstrates that remittances deepen economic exploitation, unravel societal stability and significantly expand economic inequality between poor and rich societies. The book exposes the damaging political, economic and social effects of migration on origin countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and how border and security mechanisms control and marginalize low-wage migrant workers, especially women and youth. Ness asserts that remittances do not bring growth to poor countries but extend national dependence on the export of migrant workers, leading to warped and unequal development on the global periphery. This expert take will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of migration and development across the social sciences. Cover Title page Copyright Contents List of Figures and Tables Figures Tables List of Abbreviations Acknowledgements Introduction Migrant workers are integral to destination societies From foreign aid to migration and remittances Interpretations of migration as a force for economic growth The limits of migration as agent of development Social remittances as cultural imperialism The migration as imperialist nexus Chapter outlines 1 Neoliberal Capitalism, Imperialism and Labour Migration The Third World, formal independence and economic imperialism Unequal exchange and global migration Systemic global inequality Redistribution of global income and wealth Foreign capital investment in the Global South Official development assistance Foreign direct investment Special Economic Zones Migration, remittances and development Covid-19 pandemic and economic development FDI and Covid-19 Conclusion 2 Underdevelopment and Labour Migration as Economic Imperialism Countering socialism through economic development, 1945–1980 Imperialism and the development myth Failure of free-market economic development models in the Global South and the rise of neoliberalism Remittances as a source of investment and national development United Nations Development Programme and economic remittances Labour mobility and development Focus on low-wage migrant workers Peripheral labour in strategic production centres The non-transmittal of remittances Migration as individual freedom and national catastrophe Benefits to destination countries Remittances as economic imperialism 3 Labour Migration and Origin Countries Why do origin states develop a labour-migration system? Labour demand and remittances Recruitment agency power over migrant workers Exploitation by labour-migration intermediaries Recruitment agencies and brokers Labour migration and the exploitation of countries of origin Nepal: forging a labour export state How are migration recruitment regimes formed? Remittances and the failure of economic development in Nepal Vietnam: labour migration, poverty and social dislocation Recruitment and identification of migrants Vietnam: women and migration El Salvador: structural remittances and social dislocation Salvadoran migrant passage to the United States Moldova: foreign labour, remittances and depopulation Moldova: migration and remittances Migration and economic crisis Migration, remittances and social breakdown Conclusions 4 Labour Migration and Destination States Destination countries and critique of migration as development Criminalization of migrant workers: irregular and undocumented migration Fortress America and Fortress Europe Temporary migration and unequal exchange South–south temporary labour migration Malaysia and temporary migrant labourers Malawian migration to South Africa: poverty and exclusion Covid-19 and worker exploitation and discrimination in destination states Conclusion: opposing exploitation and empowering migrant workers 5 The Damage of Borders Borders, inequality and migration The utopian and neoliberal illusion of open borders Migration and precarious labour Expanded border control and labour exploitation At-risk migrant workers in destination states Border control and multinational corporations’ profits Legal and undocumented programmes: popular movements and government strategies Global compact on migration and multilateral international organizations Covid-19 pandemic and socio-economic chaos Covid-19 and migrant worker documentation Migrant worker resistance to exploitation Internal labour migration International labour initiatives and solidarity with migrant workers The limitations of trade-union support for migrant workers Conclusion: Dismantling the Migration–Development Nexus The costs of the global labour migration regime The imaginary benefits of temporary labour migration Labour migration: capitalist road to development or economic degeneration? Remittances and the emergence of the rent economy Women and migration: social reproduction, exploitation and isolation Organic composition of capital and social reproduction of labour Migration and global supply chains Development or exploitation? Towards a new societal model for the Global South Rise in low-income migrant migration, global production and inequality Rise in labour migration, populism, xenophobia and restrictive borders Enforcing workers’ rights and the future of labour migration How will labour migration evolve in the coming decades? Where does the growth of international, temporary migrant labour point in the future? Exploitation of low-wage migrant workers in destination states What is the alternative to remittances for economic development? References Index EULA