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Refugees as Surplus Population: Race, Migration and Capitalist Value Regimes

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  • Prem Kumar Rajaram

Abstract

Refugees and migrants are often studied as though they have no relation to the racial and class structures of the societies in which they reside. They are strangers to be governed by ‘integration’ policy and border management. Refugees and migrants are, however, subjects of contemporary capitalism struggling to render themselves valuable capitalist modes of production. I study the government of refugees and migrants in order to examine capitalist value regimes. Societal values and hierarchies reflected in capitalist modes of production impact on struggles of racialised subaltern groups to translate body power into valued labour. Marx’s account of surplus populations points to the common marginalisations of people called ‘refugees’ and other subaltern groups struggling to translate their body power into valorised labour. The essay includes a study of the gentrification of a district in Budapest, and its transformation into a means for the reproduction of capital, leading to the marginalisation of groups who no longer fit the new value regimes. Studying refugees as surplus populations allows for a sense of the common marginalisations of subaltern and racialised groups before capitalism, and questions the treatment of refugees and migrants as ‘strangers’.

Suggested Citation

  • Prem Kumar Rajaram, 2018. "Refugees as Surplus Population: Race, Migration and Capitalist Value Regimes," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(5), pages 627-639, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:cnpexx:v:23:y:2018:i:5:p:627-639
    DOI: 10.1080/13563467.2017.1417372
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    Cited by:

    1. R.C. Sudheesh, 2023. "State Life: Land, Welfare and Management of the Landless in Kerala, India," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 54(4), pages 870-891, July.
    2. Ewa Połońska-Kimunguyi, 2022. "Echoes of Empire: racism and historical amnesia in the British media coverage of migration," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Ann‐Christin ZUNTZ & Mackenzie KLEMA & Shaher ABDULLATEEF & Stella MAZERI & Salim Faisal ALNABOLSI & Abdulellah ALFADEL & Joy ABI‐HABIB & Maria AZAR & Clara CALIA & Joseph BURKE & Liz GRANT & Lisa BOD, 2022. "Syrian refugee labour and food insecurity in Middle Eastern agriculture during the early COVID‐19 pandemic," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 161(2), pages 245-266, June.
    4. Emel Akçalı, 2023. "Little Aleppo: The neighbourhood experiences of Syrian refugees in Adana, Turkey, ‘poor to poor, peer to peer’," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 41(2), pages 240-256, March.

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