Article Title

Contingent Conjunctures and Infrastructures of Racial Capitalism: Activating and Confining Refugees after the 'Summer of Migration'

Authors

Mouna Maaroufi, University of HamburgFollow

ORCID

https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-2111-896X

Document Type

Research Article

Abstract

The article retraces the institutional, legal, and societal developments that have accompanied the increasing interlocking of asylum and workfare policies in Germany since the ‘summer of migration’ in 2015. By analyzing the infrastructures, narratives, but also conflicts and contingencies that underlie politics for labor market activation as they are experienced by refugees in Berlin and Brandenburg, ongoing social and institutional struggles around them are illustrated. The article argues that differential and contingent access to workfare measures corresponds to attempts to selectively and logistically activate potential workers for precarious segments and sectors. Infrastructures involved in such differential and confining activation are examined as to the racializing and coercive effects that they have on labor market participation through their unequal distribution of resources and precarities. It is argued that through their logistified approach, current conjunctures of racial capitalism contribute to forging more and more precarious, stratified, and fragmented social rights and labor relations. In spite of these contingent and divisive tendencies in racial capitalism, manifold struggles against racism and in favor of equal labor market participation continue to be fought.

Recommended Citation

Maaroufi, Mouna (2022) "Contingent Conjunctures and Infrastructures of Racial Capitalism: Activating and Confining Refugees after the 'Summer of Migration'," Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis: Vol. 1: Iss. 2, Article 5.
DOI:
Available at: https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/emancipations/vol1/iss2/5