The Seventh Man

Berger, John

doi:10.1177/030639687501600303

Cited by 195 publications

(27 citation statements)

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“…What is also staggering is the absence of serious discussion of either capitalism or imperialism in much of the mainstream coverage of refugees. Migrants have always been visible as workers in formal and informal sectors of various imperial economies (Berger and Mohr, 2010). It is rather ironic that in official responses to the refugee crisis, irrationalism is always presented as a distinct feature of the 'other'.…”

Section: Just One Crisis?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Refugee crisis, imperialism and pitiless wars on the poor

Khiabany

2016

Media, Culture & Society

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According to the UN Refugee Agency, 59.5 million people around the world were forcibly displaced in 2014. The numbers are particularly high in countries which have been subject to a process of 'redrawing the map' by imperial powers or their regional allies. The response to the recent developments -a stage which has been dubbed as 'refugee crisis' -is as polarising and as problematic as before. On the one hand we have witnessed the heroic acts not only of the refugees themselves who moved collectively and refused to queue 'orderly' in the immigration lines, but also the magnificent response of citizens in all over Europe who rushed to feed, clothe, accommodate and welcome them. In contrast the overwhelming institutional response by 'liberal' states has been, and remains, depressingly illiberal. The official response to this humanitarian crisiswhich is after all the product of 'humanitarian interventions' -has nothing to do with whether or not Europe can cope with a 'swarm of people' aiming to exploit the 'host' countries. It is to do with managing a massive reserve army of labour. Forced migration is not only a product of this staggering inequality but also an important element of how that inequality is produced, maintained and managed.

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Section: Just One Crisis?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Refugee crisis, imperialism and pitiless wars on the poor

Khiabany

2016

Media, Culture & Society

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“…They are not born: they are not brought up and they do not age: they do not get tired: they do not die. (Berger andMohr 2010/1975, p.68) Debility, violence and a wearing away of all kinds, stand and lie at the meeting points between the mounting paradox of the global demand for healthy aspirational migrant workers and responsibilities for long term care and pain relief. John Berger has parodied capitalism's denial of the migrant worker's vulnerability and finitude.…”

Section: Diasporic Neurologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morbid mixtures: Hybridity, pain and transnational dying

Gunaratnam

2014

Subjectivity

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Three stories about diseased and dying migrants in the United Kingdom are at the heart of this paper. Working with these narratives, I investigate the neurobiological, subjective and sociocultural entanglements of disease, pain and dying and the challenges these hybridisations present for attempts to recognise and alleviate suffering. My aim is to show the differential workings of hybridising forces with regard to assumed correspondences and time, as well as the indeterminate and liminal states of subjective experience that disease can amplify. The paper engages with the growing literature on 'social pain' and suggests that social pain is the mortar rather than merely a reflection of the affects and neurology of transnational migrations, loss and social violation. Keywords:Bodies, care, ethics, migrants, neurology, temporality.In the early stages of an on-going project, I sent out a call through palliative care networks in the UK, for stories about transnational dying and care. The first story that I received came from Errol, a music therapist, who described his work with Tony, a Rastafarian and migrant from Jamaica. Tony was in his late sixties and was nearing the end of his life in an urban hospice (all names are pseudonyms). Errol explained how Tony 'on the basis of his beliefs, had refused conventional cancer treatment such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy' and 'was adamant that he did not wish any opiates or western medical painkillers'. When Errol met him for the first time -taking a tambourine, a guitar and a small hand drum to the single-bedded room -Tony was writhing in 'silent agony' in his bed. Errol continued I immediately began playing the guitar trying to match the intensity of his movements and mood with the intention of providing a musical focus that called his attention to the music and away from the pain. Upon hearing this, Tony responded by indicating he wanted the hand drum. For the next hour the sound of improvised rhythmic grooves, Reggae rhythms and various Bob Marley songs could be heard to the delight of staff, floating down the ward as Tony, who proved to be a consummate drummer, played himself into a state of musical transcendence -music, used therapeutically had helped him tap into his own resources of pain management. The session ended and Tony asked for the drum to be left. As I exited, promising to return the following day, he thanked me and smiled saying he felt better…"more like me old self". There was a similar event of shared musical improvisation the next day with Tony's release from pain through music. Because it was a Friday, Errol left the instruments with Tony for the weekend. On his return to the hospice on Monday, a nurse told him that Tony had died on Sunday morning, peacefully and without pain. He had spent much of the previous day singing and playing the drums with his family and friends.Errol's story opens up three crucial matters for my discussion of hybridity at the migrant deathbed in the UK. First, there is the underlying mixing that characterises transna...

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“…In contrast, migrant workers would be more willing to accept such jobs because low wages in destina tion countries tend to be higher than those back home and the status and prestige that count for them have little to do with social expectations in the receiving societies (see e.g. Berger & Mohr 1975).…”

Section: The Statementioning

confidence: 99%

Labour Migration in Malaysia and Spain : Markets, Citizenship and Rights

Garcés-Mascareñas¹

2012

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The Seventh Man

Abstract: The following extract from John Berger's The Seventh Man, to be published by Penguin's in Spring 1975,* examines the political implications of migrant labour in West European countries. In Germany and Great Britain, one out of seven manual workers is an immigrant.

Cited by 195 publications

References 0 publications

Refugee crisis, imperialism and pitiless wars on the poor

Refugee crisis, imperialism and pitiless wars on the poor

Morbid mixtures: Hybridity, pain and transnational dying

Labour Migration in Malaysia and Spain : Markets, Citizenship and Rights

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