TERRITORIAL

POWER AND
MIGRANT 03
States effect on
TYPES migrant labor
 *Territorial Power:

Definition:
Refers to the authority and
control that a state or government
has over its territory, including
the ability to regulate and control
the movement of people across its
borders.
in simpler words, it covers civil
code, penal code and migration
policy that its citizens, migrants
and refugees have to abide by.
-for example, the US has 50+
states, each state has the power
to enforce its own law and
regulations
in simpler words, it covers civil
code, penal code and migration
policy that its citizens, migrants
and refugees have to abide by.
-for example, the US has 50+
states, each state has the power
to enforce its own law and
regulations
in simpler words, it covers civil
code, penal code and migration
policy that its citizens, migrants
and refugees have to abide by.
-for example, the US has 50+
states, each state has the power
to enforce its own law and
regulations
in simpler words, it covers civil
code, penal code and migration
policy that its citizens, migrants
and refugees have to abide by.
-for example, the US has 50+
states, each state has the power
to enforce its own law and
regulations
in simpler words, it covers civil
code, penal code and migration
policy that its citizens, migrants
and refugees have to abide by.
-for example, the US has 50+
states, each state has the power
to enforce its own law and
regulations
 *Territorial Power:

Role:
Define who legally belongs and
who does not within its territory
Assign different rights to people
with different degrees of
belonging (type of migrants).
 IN THIS SECTION
we will look into 6 different migrant labor types and the
rights given to each type
MOST HAVE VERY
PRIVILEGED FEW RIGHTS

01 02 03 04 05 06

ELITE ECONOMI SKILLED INTERNA TEMPORA UNDOCUM

MIGRANT C RETURN L RY EN-TED
S IMMIGRATI MIGRATI MIGRANT FOREIGN MIGRANTS
ON ON S WORKER
PROGRAM S
S
 01 02 03 04 05 06
ELITE MIGRANTS ECONOMIC SKILLED INTERNAL TEMPORARY UNDOCUMEN-TED
IMMIGRATION RETURN MIGRANTS FOREIGN MIGRANTS
PROGRAMS MIGRATION WORKERS
 01 02 03 04 05 06
ELITE MIGRANTS ECONOMIC SKILLED INTERNAL TEMPORARY UNDOCUMEN-TED
IMMIGRATION RETURN MIGRANTS FOREIGN MIGRANTS
PROGRAMS MIGRATION WORKERS
 Those were organized overseas
Those at the
MARK CARNEYhighest ends of the assignments within transnational
income distribution and
Canadian economist at top levels corporations or direct recruitment
of management
Served in in international firms
senior from a global pool of talent.
ELON MUSK
positions at the Bank of
South Africa
Canada
-> Canada
being recruited
Rich to serve
-> US Intelligent
as Governor of the
Hold Tesla
Bank ofassets (home,
England from Possess specialized skills,
businesses…) SpaceX or talents that are
2013 to 2020 in several expertise
country and may structure Paypal…
in high demand globally
their lives for tax
optimization

Very privileged and may exert considerable influence over

government policy.
 Those were organized overseas
Those at the highest ends of the assignments within transnational
income distribution and at top levels corporations or direct recruitment
of management in international firms from a global pool of talent.

Visas, tax structures, and H-1B visas

the regulation of the L-1 visas
financial sector have been
carefully configured to
meet the needs of very
wealthy and highly mobile
individuals

Very privileged and may exert considerable influence over

government policy.
 01 02 03 04 05 06
ELITE MIGRANTS ECONOMIC SKILLED INTERNAL TEMPORARY UNDOCUMEN-TED
IMMIGRATION RETURN MIGRANTS FOREIGN MIGRANTS
PROGRAMS MIGRATION WORKERS

‘expression
Mobility: immigrants
- Immigrants ofsuch
in interest’
that
model
selectionmigrate
schemes through
have economic
permanent
-migration
The model
residents ofprograms
gives
the do‐approval
pre notthat
territories have to
theaare
they easy
pool mobility
of
accepted as
and
the elite
immigration
have migrants.
nearly applicants
all the Often
sameand settle
then
rights in
asallows
one place
locally employers
to live
born and
to
people.
work
-pick specific individuals
Difficulties: linguistic and outcultural
of that pool
fluency, limited
- Oriented
Motivation:
social to: seek
networks better
to help job opportunities/
finding better
work, and broader
•economic long‐run labor market needs of an economy
theprospects
discrimination.
•- Have tothe
undergo
specifica andselection
immediate
process requirements
of the of
government based on their credentials, skills and
employers
potential economic contributions. (immigration
schemes)
 01 02 03 04 05 06
ELITE MIGRANTS ECONOMIC SKILLED INTERNAL TEMPORARY UNDOCUMEN-TED
IMMIGRATION RETURN MIGRANTS FOREIGN MIGRANTS
PROGRAMS MIGRATION WORKERS

- People who
Jamaica: sincestudy, work aand
the 1990s, live abroad
Returning then return to
Residents
their ‘home’Unit
Facilitation country.
(now called the Jamaicans Overseas
Department) was created, and a Charter for Long Term
- Many governments have now established agencies to
Returning Residents was established. The Charter
engage with their diaspora populations overseas and
provided overseas Jamaicans with various privileges
developed various initiatives to facilitate return
including duty‐free importation of their belongings,
migration of those with important skills or investment
travel subsidies, and long‐term residency (even if their
capital: privileged treatment, including dual citizenship,
original citizenship had been revoked)
tax incentives, and relocation subsidies
 01 02 03 04 05 06
ELITE MIGRANTS ECONOMIC SKILLED INTERNAL TEMPORARY UNDOCUMEN-TED
IMMIGRATION RETURN MIGRANTS FOREIGN MIGRANTS
PROGRAMS MIGRATION WORKERS

- Not only international, migration can happens in other

spatial scales, internal migration is the movement of
people that does not cross international (national scale)
 01 02 03 04 05 06
ELITE MIGRANTS ECONOMIC SKILLED INTERNAL TEMPORARY UNDOCUMEN-TED
IMMIGRATION RETURN MIGRANTS FOREIGN MIGRANTS
PROGRAMS MIGRATION WORKERS

- Not only international, migration can happens in other

spatial scales, internal migration is the movement of
people that does not cross international (national scale)
- Special case: macro-regional scale
- Motivation: Seek job opportunities, benefit from different types of collective
services such as health and education, state pensions, subsidized housing…
- Do not have to go through selection schemes or apply for a visa.
- Still, certain registration procedures may be required upon arrival.

EXAMPLE: China
-Since the 1960s, China has had a system of residency permits, called hukou, which
determines legitimate residency in a given place
- Since the 1990s, local governments have controlled access to the hukou, which means
that cities can, in a sense, operate their own internal ‘immigration’ program
-Temporary residence permits: offer fewer rights and must be renewed after a defined
period  the use of territorial power to create a ‘border’ can operate at an urban scale,
and not just nationally.
EU:
- By 2011, labor mobility existed across the EU for all citizens of the 2004
accession countries.
- The process of European integration has been a complex one, but clearly there
is a macro‐regional scale of territorial control over migration, and the process of
creating and administering borders is no longer simply a national affair.
 01 02 03 04 05 06
ELITE MIGRANTS ECONOMIC SKILLED INTERNAL TEMPORARY UNDOCUMEN-TED
IMMIGRATION RETURN MIGRANTS FOREIGN MIGRANTS
PROGRAMS MIGRATION WORKERS

- Temporary foreign workers (also called contract workers or

Difficulties:
guest
• workers)
Mightare people
face permitted
a threat to work in nonrenewal,
of deportation, a foreign or
-blacklisting
For thebutemployers
country they
from notand
dofuture country
have where
a permanent
contracts they
right
if they towork:
engagereside.
in any
•activities
can maintain
of whicha numerically
their employer flexible workforce that can
disapproves
expand
-• Have fewer
and
Their contract
visa
rights
in linequite
is usually
than citizens.
withrestrictive
demand and allows
-•themwhen
Mobility: temporary
to work foreign
only for
Restricted workers
a specified
if they work becomesuch
in employer
a location attoo sick or
a specified
as a farm,
jobtooplantation,
mine, old to work, theya can
or even also be sent home.
home.
 01 02 03 04 05 06
ELITE MIGRANTS ECONOMIC SKILLED INTERNAL TEMPORARY UNDOCUMEN-TED
IMMIGRATION RETURN MIGRANTS FOREIGN MIGRANTS
PROGRAMS MIGRATION WORKERS

- The least privileged among all migrant

workers are those that live and work
without legal status
- Undocumented migrants:
• Crossed borders illegally
• Visa is not renewed
• Visa is conditional upon a particular job that the migrant has lost
• Asylum claim is denied
• Educational program ends but the student stays on
- Difficulties:
- Yet, they are often
•integral
Livingandunder
essential
constant threat
participants in theoflabor
deportation
force. In the United
• Basicinworkplace
States, 2015, around 8
million workers,
regulations canorbe5
percent
floutedofbytheemployers
labor force,
were estimated to be
• Cannot risk an
unauthorized migrants
encounter
(Krogstad etwith local
al. 2017)
authorities
 MIGRANT
LABOUR AND
PLACES OF 04
SETTLEMENT
Migrant labor effect on the places
they settle and the places they come
from.
1. The first impact of migrant labor is that, in some places, their
availability allows certain kinds of production or economic activity
that would not otherwise happen:

Migrant labor availability allows certain kinds of

production or economic activity that would not
otherwise happen, usually because of the low cost and
numerical flexibility. Migrants workers can be
employed for as long as they are needed and then sent
home when they are no longer required.
 2. A second impact of migrant workers is in the domestic sphere of
reproductive labor (such as cooking, cleaning, and childcare).

The domestic sphere of reproductive labor (such

as cooking, cleaning, and childcare) have long
 This has created demand for domestic
been reasons for female migration.
workers to fulfil the home‐based roles that
• The pattern of movement usually
were once mainly done by unpaid women (as
tracks global inequalities in income and
wives, mothers, and daughters). The process
employment opportunities (from poorer,
has been facilitated by the creation of formal
developing countries to developed countries) ->
temporary migration programs that
seeking jobs,…
specifically provide work visas for
• At the same time, governments in
child/elder care workers.
many parts of the world have not expanded
childcare and eldercare services in proportion to
societal needs
 3. A third feature of migrant workers is the extent to which they can
be controlled and disciplined because of their precarious status in the
host economy:

Local labor control regime: the local The use of migrant workers is a common
labor control regime includes the strategy to achieve control over a
worker, household, firm, civil society, workforce:
• Illegal migrants: always
and state institutions to form a unique,
vulnerable to deportation if they take any
place‐specific set of relations that complaints to the local authorities
integrate workers into a production • Formal temporary foreign
system and ensure their cooperation workers: several aspects of migrant
and compliance workers’ lives make them very compliant
and controllable