THE history of capitalism has not only been linked with the creation of global circuits of capital but also of creating global circuits of labour. Cross border flows of labour usually termed in a neutral sense as migration has been the source of controllable labour in different episodes of capitalism and imperialist expansion. Before the Second World War, it was Europe, Canada and Australia and the US who absorbed huge migration of labour to build railway tracts, or work in plantation and mines.

In the recent period, similar absorption of migrant skilled and unskilled workers is being recorded in the construction sector, care, entertainment and sex work in Europe, Brazil, Hong Kong and Gulf countries. Internal migration within countries has also increased in case of India and in many other developing countries. No one would dispute the fact that migrant labour crossing border between countries or within national borders between regions increases the supply of legally or illegally transferred labour which helps contain wages in host regions. But this is only part of the story.

Refugee policies and other immigration policies are very important modes of control of flows of labour within the circuit of global capital. Increased mobility of capital in the period of globalisation on the one hand allows capital to access the existing reserve army of labour in the host countries, but the flow of migration is another stream of cheap labour which allows capital to take advantage of in their original sites of production in the developed world.

In some countries, industries are increasingly being relocated to rural areas to access cheap labour reserve available in the locality. On the other hand, migration of people from countryside to the urban centres also generates a very important source of cheap labour. But this phenomenon of increasing migrant population across the world and within countries manifests a crisis of social reproduction of capitalism which is however used as a suitable design to control the labour force to accelerate the process of capital accumulation.

CRISIS OF SOCIAL REPRODUCTION

One may argue that migration is a result of dispossession, and the dispossessed labour was earlier absorbed in the plantation, mines and railways which now shifted to construction, care and entertainment. Not only the sphere of absorption has changed but the geography has also shifted to new sites of accumulation. But this is only one dimension of the story. Capitalism essentially dispossesses people perpetually to maintain the stream of propertyless labour who would be forced to sell their labour power, and it is a continuous process necessary for the reproduction of the system. What is perhaps more important is the fact that the crisis of social reproduction created in the native place pushes people out to seek for jobs in other places. This is the circuit of labour created which adds to the supply of labour in global and regional centres. It also forces people to negotiate with capital with whatever non-capitalist resources they may have including use of family labour and other means which hardly compensate their loss for being uprooted from their communities. This migrant labour seems to be hanging in a state of limbo, and neither can continue in their native places nor can become righteous citizen in their new place of work.

Particularly citizenship rights are linked to land and property from which they are separated from. They exist as denizens or half-citizens. But this flow of labour is not only controlled by legal means but also exploited by invisibilising their existence. The equality of rights between local and domestic workers assumes a juridical or moral proposition and often appears to be an impossible moment of intervention. This is precisely because for the migrants the absence of rights becomes their passport to access the labour market. Therefore, labour which is much more docile, can accept longer hours of work and even misconducts of employers become the comparative advantage and constructed identity of the migrant workers.

Capitalism uses this labour force productively, meaning uses them to increase the rate of exploitation. The moment of control can be multidimensional. There could be legal immigrants and there could be undocumented workers, and the absence of rights by varying degrees is the crucial feature that distinguishes this fluid labour force. The structural displacement therefore creates a circulation of global reserve army of labour which becomes accessible to capital not only in the host countries but also in the country or region of its original site of accumulation. Hence the flow of global and local circuits of capital is supported by this circulation of reserve army of labour which helps reproducing capital relations in the neoliberal regime.

PRIMARY ACCUMULATION

Notably both in the international context as well as in the domestic scenario, migrant labour is portrayed as a burden to the host economy. In fact, contrary to such a view, migrants contribute to the host economy in many ways. It supplies the invisible cheap labour and sometimes new skills for the production and accumulation in the host economy and adds to the demand in the domestic economy. Most importantly it contributes to the control and regulation of labour in the host economy. The reservation wage of existing workers can be kept in check and a segmented labour market is articulated through the division of labour. The employer class often uses this segmentation in way of pitting one set of workers against others using identities of religion, caste, race or linguistic identities.

Control of borders or segmentation of labour market has been the usual modes of defining the limits of autonomy of labour flows. But in this process, the migrant population in general and particularly the workers also gain a different kind of autonomy because of their invisibility and flexibility in employment relations. Migration flows often are outcomes of primary accumulation of capital. During the colonial regime natural disaster, famine and crop failure used to generate huge outflows of destitute work force. During the neoliberal regime, migration has a pretext of primary accumulation on similar lines but in a much more protracted form. Natural disasters not only cause dispossessions of the resident people and create a stream of destitute migrant labour desperate to selling labour power in urban metropolitan centres, the spaces of residence and subsistence such as agriculture or fishing become spheres of new investment and profit making. Also growing uncertainty in peoples’ lives create market for insurance. Therefore, the circuits of labour created though the circulation of the reserve army of labour particularly the dispossessed labour force is a flow which corresponds to the global circuit of capital that either goes unnoticed or invisibilised.

The continuous separation of people from their means of livelihood and communities, making the reproduction of their existing lives increasingly unsustainable is often justified and portrayed as inevitable for achieving development goals. And the redistribution of labour resources in the global scale through streams of migration increases the supply of precarious labour who are much more adaptable and hence amenable to higher rates of exploitation. But this also adds its contribution to the story of resistance. They have really nothing to lose, not even their identity, community and rights. Migrants often try to negotiate in innovative ways to survive in their new places of work. They are controlled and turn out to be productive in capitalist parameters. This again empowers them a certain level of autonomy and bargaining power which may contribute to class formation. As formal forms of employment relations and related institutions weaken and the mass of labour force is in a state of flux, class formation and voice assume various forms. Migrant settlements both globally and locally emerge as a constituency with their defined nationality and linguistic identity as forces to be reckoned with in electoral terms. The other voice of the poor and the dispossessed negotiates with power through available means. Over time with new generations budding, settlements stabilise through their struggle and effort. They often become legally recognised and absorbed in the mainstream, but the story continues in capitalism through new doses of primary accumulation and ‘othering’ and creating fresh flows of dispossessed labour.