Inclusion through irregularisation? Exploring the politics and realities of internal bordering in managing post-crisis labour migration in the EU

Carrying Europe’s ‘White Burden’, Sustaining Racial Capitalism: Young Post-Soviet Migrant Workers in Helsinki and Warsaw

“…Including the region in the discussion on race and coloniality would complicate some of the arguments, as the region typically described under the banner of 'postsocialism' includes both the colonized and the colonizers (e.g. Russia and the Soviet Union), those who have some 'European potential' and racialized as white or 'whiter', and those discarded by modernity altogether (Balogun, 2018;Kassymbekova and Chokobaeva, 2021;Manolova, 2021;Tlostanova, 2018). Not fitting into the North/South binaries, 'Eastness' has underscored a position of 'in-betweenness' -not-quite-North, not-quite-South, white-but-not-quite (Blagojević, 2009;Zarycki, 2014).…”

“…Unlike the peripheral Orient, which has been ascribed notions of barbarism, mysticism and radical alterity (Said, 1974), East European countries were deemed reformable and subject to European assimilation (Tlostanova, 2018). This permanent catching up position is precisely what allows the racialization of 'Eastern Europeans' for economic gains in the West/North of Europe and in global value chains as a precarious low-paid labour force (Bieler and Salyga, 2020;Fedyuk and Kindler, 2016;Fiałkowska and Matuszczyk, 2021;Krivonos, 2019;Manolova, 2021).…”

“…For instance, many liberal Western European commentaries placed expression of racism in the East of Europe as a clash between ‘backward Eastern European racism’ and a ‘superior moral stance of humanitarianism’ of the West of Europe (Gagyi et al, 2016), with the latter continuing to invest funds in the securitization of eastern borders of the EU (European Commission, 2015; Rexhepi, 2018). Meanwhile, border regimes, inequalities within Europe and institutional arrangements enable exploitation and extraction of gendered and racialized labour from the East (Bieler and Salyga, 2020; Fedyuk and Kindler, 2016; Fiałkowska and Matuszczyk, 2021; Manolova, 2021; Näre, 2014). Eastern European workers become subject to double exploitation: first, as a result of radical deregulation and liberalization of economies in their ‘home countries’, and second, as migrant workers abroad (Bieler and Salyga, 2020; Lyubchenko, 2022; Manolova, 2021; Meszmann and Fedyuk, 2019).…”

“…Meanwhile, border regimes, inequalities within Europe and institutional arrangements enable exploitation and extraction of gendered and racialized labour from the East (Bieler and Salyga, 2020; Fedyuk and Kindler, 2016; Fiałkowska and Matuszczyk, 2021; Manolova, 2021; Näre, 2014). Eastern European workers become subject to double exploitation: first, as a result of radical deregulation and liberalization of economies in their ‘home countries’, and second, as migrant workers abroad (Bieler and Salyga, 2020; Lyubchenko, 2022; Manolova, 2021; Meszmann and Fedyuk, 2019). The structural dependence on foreign labour in the West of Europe goes hand in hand with structural vulnerability of these workers, as the COVID-19 pandemic revealed once again the reliance on East European migrant labour (Fiałkowska and Matuszczyk, 2021; Manolova, 2021).…”

“…Eastern European workers become subject to double exploitation: first, as a result of radical deregulation and liberalization of economies in their ‘home countries’, and second, as migrant workers abroad (Bieler and Salyga, 2020; Lyubchenko, 2022; Manolova, 2021; Meszmann and Fedyuk, 2019). The structural dependence on foreign labour in the West of Europe goes hand in hand with structural vulnerability of these workers, as the COVID-19 pandemic revealed once again the reliance on East European migrant labour (Fiałkowska and Matuszczyk, 2021; Manolova, 2021).…”