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A review by tony_from_work
Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism by Harsha Walia
5.0
A friend recently asked if I've ever read a book that I felt really changed the way I think, and I'd say this is an example. If you have any interest whatsoever in labor exploitation and migrant rights, this is an absolute must-read.
It explores how governments and corporations are incentivized to make it as hard as possible for migrants to work legally, to make the consequences for illegal work as draconian as possible, and to create propaganda that encourages fear and mistrust of the migrant worker. If someone has just had to leave their country but can't meet the impossibly high, expensive, time-consuming, and potentially dangerous standards of finding "legal" work in their new country, they have to work "illegally." And if the punishment for working "illegally" amounts to a death sentence or imprisonment or violence, then workers have absolutely no bargaining power and have to live under the constant fear of exposure for a "crime" they've essentially been forced to commit for someone else's profit. As a consequence, wealthy countries like the U.S. get to benefit off a massive labor force that they can get away with underpaying and depriving of basic labor rights. Capitalist culture loves to demean and demonize the migrant workers that it needs to survive, because the more civic support there is for harsher migration laws, the safer this sadistic racket is from exposure and liberation.
Anyway, this book outlines this much better than my summary. You should read it.
It explores how governments and corporations are incentivized to make it as hard as possible for migrants to work legally, to make the consequences for illegal work as draconian as possible, and to create propaganda that encourages fear and mistrust of the migrant worker. If someone has just had to leave their country but can't meet the impossibly high, expensive, time-consuming, and potentially dangerous standards of finding "legal" work in their new country, they have to work "illegally." And if the punishment for working "illegally" amounts to a death sentence or imprisonment or violence, then workers have absolutely no bargaining power and have to live under the constant fear of exposure for a "crime" they've essentially been forced to commit for someone else's profit. As a consequence, wealthy countries like the U.S. get to benefit off a massive labor force that they can get away with underpaying and depriving of basic labor rights. Capitalist culture loves to demean and demonize the migrant workers that it needs to survive, because the more civic support there is for harsher migration laws, the safer this sadistic racket is from exposure and liberation.
Anyway, this book outlines this much better than my summary. You should read it.