Migration, Precarization and the Democratic Deficit in Global Governance
| Author | Branka Likić‐Brborić,Aleksandra Ålund,Carl‐Ulrik Schierup |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12171 |
| Date | 01 June 2015 |
| Published date | 01 June 2015 |
Migration, Precarization and the Democratic
Deficit in Global Governance
Carl-Ulrik Schierup, Aleksandra
Alund and Branka Liki
c-Brbori
c
ABSTRACT
This article attempts to provide a critical understanding of the dual signification of “precarity”.It
explores what “precarity”as a concept may potentially offer to studies of the changing contem-
porary political economy of migration. It discusses shifting trends in global migration and point
to tendencies for a possible convergence between “South”and “North”,“East”and “West”.
Based on a review of current advances in research, it discusses, with reference to the classical
work of Karl Polanyi, the potential for a contemporary “countermovement”which would chal-
lenge the precarity of migrants. Bringing forward the issue of the “space for civil society”the
article addresses a still lingering democratic deficit in the global governance of migration.
POLICY IMPLICATIONS
The article is relevant to policymakers, trade unions and civil society organizations. It contrib-
utes to the understanding of policy making processes in emerging multilevel global gover-
nance and focuses on issues of precarization, migration, and the implementation and
accountability of human, migrant and labour rights.
INTRODUCTION
Migrants make up a disproportionate part of the social category whose experience in the world of
work is marked by “precarity”in terms of informal labour, wage squeeze, temporariness, uncer-
tainty and pernicious risk. They belong to the most disadvantaged among a globally growing work-
force of casual labour which has come to be called the “precariat”. This, in spite of vast
differences in local situations, is currently one of the greatest social and political challenges: to
governments, to multilateral organizations, to trade unions and to broader social justice and human
rights movements across the world. It is a predicament of the present that takes us well beyond the
conventional understanding of North and South, West and East.
“Precarity”(has currently gained importance in critical labour and citizenship studies in general,
and in studies on migration, in particular. Its coining is ascribed to Bourdieu (1963). It epitomizes
the nexus of precarious labour and truncated citizenship (e.g. Vosko, 2009; Anderson, 2010; Gold-
ring. 2011).Yet the meaning that precarity conveys in a range of contemporary critical studies is
not “social exclusion”, seen as due to redeemable institutional shortcomings, but a “constitutive ele-
ment of the new global disorder, to which it is very functional”. (Ricceri, 2011: 68). As such it
REMESO, Link€
oping University.
doi: 10.1111/imig.12171
©2014 The Authors International Migration
published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf
of International Organization for Migration
International Migration Vol. 53 (3) 2015
ISSN 0020-7985
This is an open access article under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
License, which permits use and distribution in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-
commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
To continue reading
Request your trial