Global Migrations, Old Forms of Labor, and New Transborder Class Relations

Abstract

With the labor market fed by international migrations, global capitalism has seen a resurgence of archaic forms of labor in certain industries since the 1970s. The old capitalist strategy of employing multiethnic work forces has resurfaced in seafaring and transnational construction, which rely mainly on migrant male workers. In Western economies, the hiring of servants was thought to be a thing of the past, but today female migrants are widely employed as paid domestic workers. In industrializing Asia, the hiring of foreign domestic workers has also surged. Despite appearances, these old labor forms indicate a new set of contradictions directly implicated in the structuring of transnational social class and status relations. States play instrumental roles as labor recruiters and as users of migrant labor with few citizenship rights. The tighter interconnectedness of the global economy and of class practices notwithstanding, labor migrations deepen national attachment and reinforce the view of class structures as fundamentally national formations. This phenomenon is examined from the perspective of the Philippines.