Capitalism, Neoliberalism, and Unfree Labour

Abstract

The literature on the unfree character of temporary migrant labour has drawn much needed attention to the poor working conditions faced by migrant workers and opened up an important space to challenge those ubiquitous claims by defenders of the current political-economic status quo of the freedom expressed at the core of neoliberalism. However, there is a risk to focusing on legal unfreedom to the exclusion of a broader critique of the logic of capitalist reproduction, the very premise of which is the private ownership of society’s productive wealth and the alienation of the majority of people from that wealth. Unfreedom and coercion are systematic to capitalist market relations, and all wage labour, including that of formally ‘free’, is unfree. This article examines different conceptions of labour unfreedom and concludes with a discussion of unfree labour in the neoliberal context.

Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker and International Mobility Programs: Charting Change and Continuity Among Source Countries

“…After IMP became the more dominant programme of the two in 2009, it continued to grow while participation in the TFWP plateaued and then contracted such that, by 2018, three times as many migrants held work permits under the IMP than the TFWP. This ongoing growth of IMP work permit holders aligns closely with the growth of labour migration globally and the attendant emphasis on mobility within trading blocs (Pellerin, 2008; Gordon, 2018).…”

“…While much scholarship has demonstrated how exploitation occurs through these programmes, and key interventions underline the role of elements of unfreedom (see, e.g. Sharma, 2006;Strauss and McGrath, 2017;Gordon, 2018;Stasiulis, 2020), how certain variants are situated vis-a-vis historically racialized relations of expropriation has received less attention.…”

Working for free illegal employment practices, ‘off the books’ work and the continuum of legality within the service economy

“…The debate around illegal labour often focuses upon migrant labour and illegal entry (Entorf and Moebert 2004), the conditions of employment within the informal economy (Ahmad 2008a(Ahmad , 2008b and the spectre of competition between indigenous workers and newly arrived illegal immigrants (Venturini 2004; see also Winlow et al 2017). However, legal migration for work purposes has also been identified as a form of 'unfree' labour (Gordon 2018); workers brought to a country by an employer can find their ability to move between occupations restricted by the conditions of their migration. While neoliberal ideology evokes freedom and flexibility for workers, the reality for many is one of restriction and limitation, regardless of legal status.…”

“…Finally, we must consider the formal labour market and its current conditions if we are to identify a wider continuum of illegal and exploitative practice. As labour markets continue to reflect neoliberal values of freedom, particularly freedom of movement and its accompanying flexibility (Standing 2011), the use of 'flexible' yet ultimately illegal and 'unfree' labour increasingly shapes legitimate labour markets (Gordon 2018). Flexibility and freedom in neoliberal terms masks an absence of stability and protection that manifests in both the conditions of employment (i.e.…”

Revitalising decent work through inclusion: toward relational understanding and action

“…The human person becomes necessarily understood in relation to their economic production and consumption, while the opaqueness of these systems restricts workers' opportunities to disrupt hierarchical distributions of individual rights. These neoliberal policies create an occupational precarity that particularly affects already marginalised populations, including migrant workers (Gordon, 2019;Shantz, 2015) and workers with disabilities (Wilton & Schuer, 2006). Two decades ago, Sennett (1998) argued that "the change to short-term, contract or episodic labour" (p. 23) has led to a corrosion of character, that is, the decay of the long-term aspects of our emotional experience, our mutual commitment to others, and our pursuit of long-term goals.…”