Description
Book SynopsisHarshly exploited migrant labour plays a fundamental role in the political economy of contemporary capitalism. The abstract and utopian theorising of many liberals and leftists on the migration question often ignores or downplays patterns of displacement and brutal class dynamics, which divide and weaken working people while empowering the ruling class.
In this important new book, Hannah Cross provides a sober analysis of the class antagonisms of migration in the context of the nation, social democracy, and the racialized ordering of the world. Bringing Marxist methodology and strategy to a careful analysis of existing emancipatory movements, she sets out the programmes and approaches that are needed to promote global worker solidarity and create a future in which cheap labour is no longer a mainstay of wealthy economies. This focus on the labouring classes allows her to identify some important new directions for migration in a world beyond capitalism, exploitation and injustice.
This book will be essential reading for students, scholars and general readers interested in the politics and political economy of migration in a world unhelpfully caught between racist authoritarian capitalism and the wishful-thinking of contemporary left-liberalism.
Trade Review“Rooting her approach in the classical Marxist tradition, Hannah Cross provides an original critique of, and alternative to, much leftist and liberal thinking on the political economy of migration into core capitalist countries. Essential reading for all progressives.”
Ben Selwyn, University of Sussex
“A powerful and original analysis of migration's place in contemporary capitalism. Engaging with an impressive range of leftist debates and authors – both present and past – Cross pushes us to think in new ways about borders, internationalism and class. A much-needed contribution to both Marxism and the literature on migration, and essential reading for those seeking to build a better future.”
Adam Hanieh, SOAS, University of London
“While the post-materialist and nationalist views on migration are both symptomatic of a left that has resigned itself to the established order, Cross’s analysis points towards the possibility of an independent left position. This left is not content with letting others set the terms of the debate, but is actively building an alternative to the non-choices the ruling class throws at us. This makes Cross’s perspective invaluable for the struggles ahead.”
Counterfire
“Cross’ approach provides a much-needed reorientation on the discussion around migration. By doing so, Cross effectively demonstrates why an internationalist working-class response is the key to defeating neoliberal power and creating a new world.”
Review of African Political Economy
“Migration Beyond Capitalism rescues an undoubtedly critical question for the twentieth-first century: the consequences of neoliberal politics over the displacement of the working class throughout the world and, more specifically, the movement from the Global South towards the North.”
Marx & Philosophy Review of Books
