ABSTRACT
Transnational migration is – directly and indirectly – not only an effect of neoliberal policies in the peripheries of global capitalism, but also a crucial component of the international and transnational division of labor implemented by the flexible and combined neoliberal regime of capitalist accumulation. Over the last four decades, transnational migratory movements have provided capital with abundant, mobile, and cheap labor not just in the centers, but in the semi-peripheries as well. Due to their extreme vulnerability, transnational migrants are the weakest link in the global division of labor. The current xenophobic backlash against migrants is a logical corollary to the devastating effects of neoliberal policies that have impoverished and thrown millions of people into a precarious life and an uncertain future. Social feelings of anxiety, fear, and abandonment are easily transformed in xenophobia and racism by right-wing political agents, feeding neonationalist and neofascist movements. In a dreadful twist, the demonization and dehumanization of migrants ends up providing capital with an even more vulnerable labor force and cheaper provision of labor power, while making migrants scapegoats of the brutality of bio-capitalism. This chapter analyzes the widespread backlash against transnational migrants as part and parcel of a deeper crisis of the neoliberal regime of accumulation; as one more symptom of the multifarious crisis that points to the limits of neoliberalism, the beginnings of a new and terrifying inter-capitalist struggles for global hegemony, the probable transition into a new capitalist historical cycle, and even perhaps the possibilities to turn the tables for good.
