ABSTRACT

So, what is an immigrant? An immigrant is essentially labour power, and labour power that is non-permanent, temporary, in transit. According to this principle, an immigrant worker (which is itself almost a pleonasm), […] is always defined and treated as provisional, and therefore dismissible at any moment. […] The right to stay is subject entirely to the immigrant’s labour, and is granted first and foremost to exist as an immigrant, and thereafter briefly as a human being – in effect, as a human being subject to the condition of being an immigrant.