Response to Sandro Mezzandra and Brett Neilson’s review of <i>The Fight for Time: Migrant Day Laborers and the Politics of Precarity</i>

Apostolidis, Paul

doi:10.1017/s1537592719004821

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Moreover, inclusionary humanitarian responses to racial hostility should also be avoided because they recast the problem as one of victims of endemic violence in the Global South requiring assistance, rather than understanding poverty and migration as entwined with western self-and-other-determination (Valdez 2020, 97-101;2021, 20-22). These strategies reinforce, rather than challenge, the racial affect that sustained white democracy and would isolate, rather than support, emancipatory projects spearheaded by Black and brown groups that are both antiracist and anticapitalist (Dawson 2016;Threadcraft 2017;Apostolidis 2019;Valdez 2020, 101-5). State University, the University of Chicago, and the meetings of the American Political Science Association and the Caribbean Philosophical Association.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empire, Popular Sovereignty, and the Problem of Self-and-Other-Determination

Valdez¹

2022

Perspect. polit.

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This article develops W. E. B. Du Bois’s notion of democratic despotism to illustrate the entanglement of popular sovereignty and empire through an excessive form of western self-determination and theorizes how features of this formation remain today. Democratic despotism implies that, in western democracies at the turn of the twentieth century, popular sovereignty was an impulse to partake of the wealth and resources obtained by empire. Western democracies issued a claim to determine themselves (democratically) and others (despotically), in what I call “self-and-other-determination.” I frame the question of imperial democracy within the literature on empire and racial capitalism and the writings of Du Bois, Frantz Fanon, and Saidiya Hartman to conceptualize how racial affective attachments allow citizens past and present to restrict democratic concern to a limited community, whose wealth relies on the imperial exploitation of racialized others. I discuss the absence of these questions in the literature on self-determination and reflect on the implications of my framework for the contemporary rise of right-wing populism.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empire, Popular Sovereignty, and the Problem of Self-and-Other-Determination

Valdez¹

2022

Perspect. polit.

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“…They also often lack knowledge of their rights (FRA, 2018: 38, 47). As Apostolidis (2019: 10-12) further points out, job insecurity and uncertainty prevent migrant women from working or limit their work options to exploitative jobs. Thus, irregular, informal and gendered working conditions as well as a lack of decent employment opportunities have exposed migrants to labor exploitation and economic precarity.…”

Section: Vulnerability or “Precarity”: A Gendered Conceptualizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gendered precarity of migrant women in the satellite city of Isparta, Türkiye

Sallan Gül,

Kahya Nizam,

Türkmen Er

2023

Asian and Pacific Migration Journal

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This paper focuses on the experiences of asylum-seeking and forced migrant women in one of the satellite cities in Türkiye and discusses how gender affects women’s precarious living and working conditions. Based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 20 migrant women from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria in 2019, our findings suggest that asylum-seeking women have limited access to economic and social resources available in the satellite city of Isparta due to gender inequalities. The findings of the study indicate that factors, such as (1) gendered and informal employment structure, (2) traditional gender roles, (3) crowded and patriarchal family structure, (4) loosened kinship and solidarity, (5) language incompetence, (6) restrictive migration management and (7) satellite city policies, all have a role in determining the experiences of these migrant women. These factors often prevent migrant women from accessing some basic services, social networks and employment opportunities, and push them to live precarious, impoverished and excluded lives.

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“…The activities in these centres are often carried out by volunteers, who are also recruited among the workers who previously looked for the consultation. The work of such centres is similar to the concept of Workers Centres, which are widespread in North America and reach out to migrant working populations with both counselling services and organising resources, often in consultation with trade unions (Fine 2006, Apostolidis 2019. In Berlin, Oficina Precaria assists workers with three main problems: first, when facing issues with the (algorithmic) system of the mobile application or its interface, as in the case of de-ranking or forced log-off; second, with bureaucratic hurdles related to their self-employment; and third, with a wide range of socio-economic issues connected to their arrival in Berlin (comp.…”

Section: Countering Fragmentation: Collective Resources and Counter-p...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Organising fragmented labour: the case of migrant workers at Helpling in Berlin

Niebler,

Animento

2023

Econ. labour relat. rev.

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Research on collective organisation of migrant platform workers is mostly concerned with ride-hailing and delivery logistics, where explicit forms of collective action have been visible. This paper addresses the issue of the self-organisation of migrant workers on cleaning platforms through a case study of Helpling cleaners in Berlin. In the paper, we ask why the attempts for organising workers have failed to scale up beyond the informal exchange of information and tactics among the workers. Our article argues that the spatial dispersion of work across the city, lack of occupational identity, and the legal framework of work, make worker organising difficult for cleaners in Berlin. Still, these factors do not lead to an absence of collective practices. Helpling workers in our study gather in online groups, can receive help and exchange in a community centre, and have been in touch with political groups. Based on the case study, the article discusses potentials and hurdles for the development of collective counter-power.

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Response to Sandro Mezzandra and Brett Neilson’s review of The Fight for Time: Migrant Day Laborers and the Politics of Precarity

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Empire, Popular Sovereignty, and the Problem of Self-and-Other-Determination

Empire, Popular Sovereignty, and the Problem of Self-and-Other-Determination

Gendered precarity of migrant women in the satellite city of Isparta, Türkiye

Organising fragmented labour: the case of migrant workers at Helpling in Berlin

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