Stephen Castles and Godula Kosack, "The Function of Labour Immigration in Western European Capitalism," New Left Review, Number 73, May June 1972.
The basic understanding of this article is that the immigrant labor force of underdeveloped or Third world countries have effected the West European capitalism economically, socially, and politically.
The article starts off with statistical information on the arising populations of immigrant workers into developed countries. Then goes on to discuss its development post-1945 and problems arising from such developments of immigrants.
The employment of immigration workers from the Third World has been the solution to problems of West European capitalism. The employment of these workers have caused a split between immigrant and indigenous workers along national and racial lines. According to Lenin, one of the special features of imperialism was ‘the decline in emigration from imperialist countries and the increase in immigration into these countries from the more backward countries where lower wages are paid. This was a main cause of the division of the working class.
There have been a massive number of immigrants into West Europe. Due to such large numbers of people, government policies were directed in preventing too many foreigners from entering the developed countries (such as Germany and Switzerland.) Restrictive policies also were in place towards foreign workers. It was in the period of the early 6o’s that immigrate workers grew extremely rapidly. As a result, new policies intended to attract and integrate immigrant workers, but also to control them better, were introduced. The workers are given inferior jobs, having no political rights and may be used as a constant threat to the wages and conditions of the local labor force.
Immigrants, in general, tend to concentrate in certain industries where they form a high proportion of the labor force. It is said that immigrants from the lowest stratum of the working class carrying out unskilled and semi-skilled work in those industrial sectors with the worst working conditions and/or the lowest pay. So, the entry of the immigrants in the work force made it possible for many indigenous workers to get promoted to jobs with better conditions and higher status or more skilled.
The division of the working class within the production process is duplicated by a division in other spheres of society. They live in inferior work-situation and living conditions. The division between the classes is in part due to certain legal, political, and psychological factors.
There is institutionalized discrimination in the form of legislation which restricts immigrants’ civic and labor market rights. There is also another form of discrimination addressed as informal discrimination based on racialism or xenophobia. But the most serious form of discrimination against the foreign workers is their deprivation of political rights. No voting rights or right to hold a place in office.
Studies have shown that some of the problems within racial discrimination indicates the hostility is based on the position of immigrants in society and not on the color of their skin. The Italians were unpopular for moving into Switzerland as the Asians were unpopular for moving into Britain. Racialism and xenophobia are products of the capitalist national state and of its imperialist expansion.
Economic effects: new industrial reserve army of immigrant workers is a major stabilizing factor of the capitalist economy. In the long run, the effect has been stagnation. Every phase of expansion has collapsed rapidly as wages rose due to labor shortages.
Social effects: The introduction of immigrant workers led to a division of the working class into two strata. The split is maintained by various forms of discrimination and is reinforced by racialist and xenophobic ideologies.
Political effects: The denial of political rights to immigrants excludes a large section of the working class from political activity and hence weakens the class as a whole.
Immigrant workers can become a class-conscious and militant section of the labor movement. Playing a leading part in strike movements throughout West Europe. They have also developed spontaneous forms of organization in the struggle.
Summary by Zung-Chinh Doan