Migration channels cheap labor to sustain rich countries’ dominance

Evidence

Migration was seen as a consequence of the unequal distribution of economic and political power in the world economy. Labor surpluses in the Third World were a legacy of colonialism and Western military intervention which had brought about underdevelopment and dependency on foreign capital. Labor surpluses in backward parts of the European periphery were the result of war and regional inequalities. Migration was a way of mobilizing cheap labor in the interests of capital owners in the rich countries. Migration was as important as military hegemony and control of world trade and investment in keeping the Third World dependent on the First. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3834

Categorization

• XREF: Historical-structural/world-systems view echoes themes in The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Hamid) about the flow of labor and resentment across the global hierarchy.