R. Yurukoglu Memorial Lecture 2007 has been held on December 1 in London. Mr Stephen Castles, Professor of Migration and Refugee Studies, University of Oxford, spoke on "Understanding the Political Economy of the New Global Workforce". The conference has been attended by a crowded and lively audience. Prof Castles' lecture can be summarised as follows:

ABSTRACT

The period of accelerated globalisation since about 1980 has been characterised by an increase in inequality both between rich and poor nations, and within nations. It has also been marked by a global restructuring of the labour force that takes two forms: export of capital to low-wage countries, and import of labour from low-wage areas, to carry out both highly-skilled and lower-skilled work in rich economies.

Globalisation emerged in the 1980s as part of neo-liberal strategies to roll back the welfare states and the relatively high wage levels in industrial countries during the post-war boom period. The end of the Cold War and the growth of US military and ideological dominance created the conditions for the global spread of neo-liberalism. Penetration of third world economies by multi-national corporations caused the destruction of existing modes of production. This led to massive rural-urban migration, and then, in many case, to international labour migration. At the same time, economic restructuring in developed countries eliminated many skilled working-class jobs, and created conditions of casualised labour and informal work. These trends interacted to cause large-scale mobility of workers from South to North.

The result is a new mobile global workforce, stratified according to gender, ethnicity, race, skills, origins and legal status. In many immigration countries, the combination of fears of competition from cheaper labour, and the persistence of racist ideologies derived from colonialism leads to conflict between groups of workers. The rise of right-wing movements has been based on anti-immigrant racism, and in some cases such movements have recruited from traditional communist parties (as in France for example).

Such trends have changed the conditions for left-wing politics. The relatively homogenous national industrial working classes that formed the basis of trade unions and left parties no longer exist. New strategies are needed today. Despite the material and legal obstacles, migrants have established associations and organised powerful social movements. Examples include the protest actions of youth of migrant origin in France in 2005, strikes and demonstration by South Asian building workers in Dubai in 2006, and the widespread movement for migrant rights – led mainly by Mexican workers – in the USA in 2006. The key questions are how to link demands of various diverse groups, establish links across national and ethnic boundaries, and how to broaden their goals to include long-term political and social change.