Original scientific paper
Capital Accumulation and the Import of Labour: a Review of Some Marxist Positions in the 1970’s
Carl-Ulrik Schierup
; University of Umeå, Umeå, Sweden
Abstract
In this paper the author discusses various Marxist views on the role of the reserve army of immigrant labour in relation to capitalist accumulation in Western Europe. Critical analysis is given of the theories of Claude Meillassoux, Andre Gorz, Marios Nikolinakos, Adriana Marshall, Stephen Castles and Godula Cosack. The author maintains that although most Marxist writers uphold the view that the contradictory position of immigrant workers as a reserve army of labour provides a basis for their ambiguous role in the economic and political class struggle that there is still disagreement in regard to defining this position in structural terms. It is argued that this disagreement is the result of generalizations made by observing different parts of the Western European reality. The author pursues this argument in two European contexts – first, the Federal Republic of Germany and the Netherlands; second, the case of France.
Keywords
immigrant workers; capital accumulation; Western Europe
Hrčak ID:
128934
URI
Publication date:
31.12.1985.
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