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Migration as Economic Imperialism: How International Labour Mobility Undermines Economic Development in Poor Countries
For several decades, wealthy states, international development agencies and multinational corporations have encouraged labour migration from the Global South to the Global North. As well as providing essential workers to support the transformation of advanced economies, the remittances that migrants send home have been touted as the most promising means of national development for poor and undeveloped countries. As Immanuel Ness argues in this sharp corrective to conventional wisdom, temporary labour migration represents the most recent form of economic imperialism and global domination. A closer look at the economic and social evidence demonstrates that remittances deepen economic exploitation, unravel societal stability and significantly expand economic inequality between poor and rich societies. The book exposes the damaging political, economic and social effects of migration on origin countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and how border and security mechanisms control and marginalize low-wage migrant workers, especially women and youth. Ness asserts that remittances do not bring growth to poor countries but extend national dependence on the export of migrant workers, leading to warped and unequal development on the global periphery. This expert take will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of migration and development across the social sciences.
272 pages, Hardcover
Published September 12, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 28, 2024
Marxist anti-imperialism
A reminder that migrants benefit the imperialist world economy at great cost to the working class in developing countries in the third world.
A reminder that migrants benefit the imperialist world economy at great cost to the working class in developing countries in the third world.
January 29, 2024
A vital book. I have been attempting to find a text clarifying the impact of a) Western wars of aggression on migration flows, b) the real impact of 'brain drain' on origin countries, c) and the unequal exchange imperatives (i.e. economic imperatives) of inducing but controlling migration for core countries for a long time. This book does all of that. The impact of Western aggression is largely taken as understood in this text (though Ness does highlight how much flows have grown since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the full imposition of USian imperial hegemony on the world), but otherwise it answers the above questions in a very in-depth manner. I was shocked - even as someone with a good understanding of the impacts of unequal exchange - at just how dependent certain states, e.g. Philippines, are on remittances as a form of export, as well as the uneven developmental impact of these flows (see India).
Ness also very effectively elucidates the realities underpinning liberal migration fetishism by highlighting how both economic inducements are the key cause of migration (i.e., people are fleeing their homes as a result of deprivation caused by the system propping up Western development, not because they're looking for a change of scenery) and how migration controls benefit core states (i.e., the economic benefits of migration - which liberals tend to herald within their fetishistic human rights narratives - comes as a result of the ability to hyper-exploit rightsless migrants, not because there is an equal provision of benefit - 'citizenship' for production).
To poorly echo Torkil Lauesen (I think), Western communists should encourage mass migration into core states as both recompense for the causes of these flows, but also to undermine the system of unequal exchange - Ness' prescriptions, though not overly radical, reflect similar sentiments.
Ness also very effectively elucidates the realities underpinning liberal migration fetishism by highlighting how both economic inducements are the key cause of migration (i.e., people are fleeing their homes as a result of deprivation caused by the system propping up Western development, not because they're looking for a change of scenery) and how migration controls benefit core states (i.e., the economic benefits of migration - which liberals tend to herald within their fetishistic human rights narratives - comes as a result of the ability to hyper-exploit rightsless migrants, not because there is an equal provision of benefit - 'citizenship' for production).
To poorly echo Torkil Lauesen (I think), Western communists should encourage mass migration into core states as both recompense for the causes of these flows, but also to undermine the system of unequal exchange - Ness' prescriptions, though not overly radical, reflect similar sentiments.
April 22, 2025
3.5 stars. Very pertinent information given the heightened actions due to xenophobia in the US. This book brings up interesting contradictions within the development and economic feasibility of global migration. The content was a bit redundant in the first few chapters, but the driving theory was, if anything, well developed.
July 18, 2025
There is a strong tendency at the liberal end of commentary on immigration issues to respond to right wing doom-mongering by insisting that there’s not much to see here, calm down and carry on.
A recent example of this came in the form of Hein de Haas’s lengthy book, How Migration Really Works. Described as ‘a factful guide to the most divisive issue in politics, Professor de Haas discusses twenty-two ‘myths’ about migration which he claims, if only looked at more dispassionately, really ought to set us all at ease.
Looked at in this way, there really aren’t too many immigrants in the world – around just 3 percent of the world’s population. Most of them aren’t coming ‘here’ anyway – they are just moving across their most immediate local border, with Bangladeshi’s crossing into India and sub-Saharan Africans migrating to the north of their continent. In any event it is all working out for the best anyway. They are meeting demand for workers in whatever country they arrive in and their remittances back home are helping to drive development.
The author of Immigration as Economic Imperialism eschews this complacency. The type of migration taking place in the world today is, first and foremost, organised along the lines of imperialism, and as such works to subordinate the interests of all the people concerned to the brutal business of capital accumulation. Its effects can be traced from the displacement of rural agricultural communities to Third World mega-cities as their peasant landholdings become unsustainable in the face of competition from Global North agribusiness corporations.
Problems of sustainability in stifling urban environments are not solved by shipping surplus populations overseas to find whatever work is available in countries further afield. Developing nation governments pursue the dream of what is effectively selling those of their citizens who can’t find work at home to richer countries who will employ them in sundry hard-to-fill jobs – seafarers, care workers, farm workers, builders, hospitality staff, domestic workers and the like. But rather than applaud their willingness to labour in jobs not considered attractive by natives, the host countries set the seal on a stigmatised immigration status by branding them as unskilled, unproductive and getting to many housing and health benefits.
Ness is particularly withering in his analysis of the World Bank’s enthusiasm for remittances. There are many reasons for being sceptical about the value of remittances as a strategy for advancing development, with its negative effects in promoting inequality in home countries as the families supported by an income from an overseas worker are elevated to gentry level, with living standards that outstrip their neighbours, being one of the most serious. But its allure as a ready-made solution to developing-world poverty is also challenged by the precarity of residence status in the host country. A welcome flow of money during good years can easily dry up if that nation’s mood for migration changes and deportations and other forced returns start to increase.
The analysis set out here follows the standard Marxist reading of neoliberal imperialism and provides a convincing picture of the misery which is the standard lot of the migrant. But the proper object of materialist inquiry is not just to describe what is, but also the ways in which we might look to change it. Ness gives us too few clues on this matter. The radical solutions advanced from some quarters, to aim for the wholesale abolition of borders is dismissed as a ‘utopian ideal’ which is ‘not rooted in historical or material reality.’
The chapter missing from this book is the one that sets out the ‘historical and material reality’ of migrant struggle for social, economic and political rights which is developing at a necessary rapid pace in the United States as resistance builds against the cruel actions of Trump’s ICE enforcers. Europe, regrettably, lags somewhat behind but nevertheless the groundwork for a form of class struggle that embraces migrant and refugee rights can still be seen on good days.
The integration of migrant rights into a struggle for social justice that extends across the indigenous working class and others whose interests are marginalised by capital is the way we move beyond the abject experience of migration which is well described in this book. That is the way to reach the a point where moving across national frontiers becomes something much closer to a basic human right.
A recent example of this came in the form of Hein de Haas’s lengthy book, How Migration Really Works. Described as ‘a factful guide to the most divisive issue in politics, Professor de Haas discusses twenty-two ‘myths’ about migration which he claims, if only looked at more dispassionately, really ought to set us all at ease.
Looked at in this way, there really aren’t too many immigrants in the world – around just 3 percent of the world’s population. Most of them aren’t coming ‘here’ anyway – they are just moving across their most immediate local border, with Bangladeshi’s crossing into India and sub-Saharan Africans migrating to the north of their continent. In any event it is all working out for the best anyway. They are meeting demand for workers in whatever country they arrive in and their remittances back home are helping to drive development.
The author of Immigration as Economic Imperialism eschews this complacency. The type of migration taking place in the world today is, first and foremost, organised along the lines of imperialism, and as such works to subordinate the interests of all the people concerned to the brutal business of capital accumulation. Its effects can be traced from the displacement of rural agricultural communities to Third World mega-cities as their peasant landholdings become unsustainable in the face of competition from Global North agribusiness corporations.
Problems of sustainability in stifling urban environments are not solved by shipping surplus populations overseas to find whatever work is available in countries further afield. Developing nation governments pursue the dream of what is effectively selling those of their citizens who can’t find work at home to richer countries who will employ them in sundry hard-to-fill jobs – seafarers, care workers, farm workers, builders, hospitality staff, domestic workers and the like. But rather than applaud their willingness to labour in jobs not considered attractive by natives, the host countries set the seal on a stigmatised immigration status by branding them as unskilled, unproductive and getting to many housing and health benefits.
Ness is particularly withering in his analysis of the World Bank’s enthusiasm for remittances. There are many reasons for being sceptical about the value of remittances as a strategy for advancing development, with its negative effects in promoting inequality in home countries as the families supported by an income from an overseas worker are elevated to gentry level, with living standards that outstrip their neighbours, being one of the most serious. But its allure as a ready-made solution to developing-world poverty is also challenged by the precarity of residence status in the host country. A welcome flow of money during good years can easily dry up if that nation’s mood for migration changes and deportations and other forced returns start to increase.
The analysis set out here follows the standard Marxist reading of neoliberal imperialism and provides a convincing picture of the misery which is the standard lot of the migrant. But the proper object of materialist inquiry is not just to describe what is, but also the ways in which we might look to change it. Ness gives us too few clues on this matter. The radical solutions advanced from some quarters, to aim for the wholesale abolition of borders is dismissed as a ‘utopian ideal’ which is ‘not rooted in historical or material reality.’
The chapter missing from this book is the one that sets out the ‘historical and material reality’ of migrant struggle for social, economic and political rights which is developing at a necessary rapid pace in the United States as resistance builds against the cruel actions of Trump’s ICE enforcers. Europe, regrettably, lags somewhat behind but nevertheless the groundwork for a form of class struggle that embraces migrant and refugee rights can still be seen on good days.
The integration of migrant rights into a struggle for social justice that extends across the indigenous working class and others whose interests are marginalised by capital is the way we move beyond the abject experience of migration which is well described in this book. That is the way to reach the a point where moving across national frontiers becomes something much closer to a basic human right.
May 2, 2024
Repetitive, boring, lame- booed off the stage
May 24, 2025
6.8/10
This is maybe a hundred pages too long, very repetitive and lacks flow. It also suffers from lack of details of conditions in home and destination states. India, Malaysia and the U.S.-Central America systems are covered well, but more time could have been spent on southern African migration, for instance (on India, the book gives me enough clues to paint a picture of how fucked up the country is, sad!)
In general, I agree with the thesis of the book, which seems self-evident. Most migrants are stuck between a rock and a hard place, between home countries condemned to underdevelopment and destination countries of hyper exploitation and hyper exploiters who hate them. Not only do they personally suffer, but the idea that their laboring in the first world will “trickle down” to benefit third world home countries is unrealistic. Whatever remittances are sent back are spent mostly on consumption, as opposed to being focused on concrete development of a country's productive forces.
One point I liked was the myth of an inherent job skills transfer through promotion of immigration. Low wage migrants do not by nature acquire useful technical skills that can be applied back home, and high wage migrants (India) are already elites within their home states who have no incentive to actually develop their impoverished countrymen. Only in select cases (China, South Korea) can these skills actually be transferred, cases I admittedly hope to study further.
Destination state-wise, The necessity of suppression of first world nativism, by any means necessary, is clear to me. For the U.S., immediate granting of citizenship to all illegal and legal immigrants is a good first step, though this is my own recommendation, not the author’s. I also approve of a “global wealth tax” to third world nations, mentioned in the book.
This is maybe a hundred pages too long, very repetitive and lacks flow. It also suffers from lack of details of conditions in home and destination states. India, Malaysia and the U.S.-Central America systems are covered well, but more time could have been spent on southern African migration, for instance (on India, the book gives me enough clues to paint a picture of how fucked up the country is, sad!)
In general, I agree with the thesis of the book, which seems self-evident. Most migrants are stuck between a rock and a hard place, between home countries condemned to underdevelopment and destination countries of hyper exploitation and hyper exploiters who hate them. Not only do they personally suffer, but the idea that their laboring in the first world will “trickle down” to benefit third world home countries is unrealistic. Whatever remittances are sent back are spent mostly on consumption, as opposed to being focused on concrete development of a country's productive forces.
One point I liked was the myth of an inherent job skills transfer through promotion of immigration. Low wage migrants do not by nature acquire useful technical skills that can be applied back home, and high wage migrants (India) are already elites within their home states who have no incentive to actually develop their impoverished countrymen. Only in select cases (China, South Korea) can these skills actually be transferred, cases I admittedly hope to study further.
Destination state-wise, The necessity of suppression of first world nativism, by any means necessary, is clear to me. For the U.S., immediate granting of citizenship to all illegal and legal immigrants is a good first step, though this is my own recommendation, not the author’s. I also approve of a “global wealth tax” to third world nations, mentioned in the book.
May 2, 2024
Writing a review for this one because I was sooo excited about it and it did not live up to my expectations. It is extremely well researched but poorly written. Particularly in the beginning of the book, the sentences are highly repetitive and the book fails to support its claims. It contradicts itself at times as well, which is a shame because I think the author is making a really important point. Could be fantastic if it had a better editor.
August 18, 2025
A thought provoking and easy-to-read book that challenges the narrative set forward by the world’s leading economic development agencies, finance capitalists and western governments that international labour migration is beneficial to the entire world economy and is the primary means for the economic development of poor countries
The books proposes that labour migration is a new form of Arghiri Emmanuel’s theory of unequal exchange and draws on studies to demonstrate that remittances do not offset underdevelopment and structural poverty, rather, it exposes their subservience to developed countries in the international system.
The books proposes that labour migration is a new form of Arghiri Emmanuel’s theory of unequal exchange and draws on studies to demonstrate that remittances do not offset underdevelopment and structural poverty, rather, it exposes their subservience to developed countries in the international system.
December 26, 2024
Absolutely essential to understand how the labor needs of the North undermines development and quality of life in the South.
26/12/24 reread: Even more relevant as we lead into another trump term. Essential reading for all USians.
26/12/24 reread: Even more relevant as we lead into another trump term. Essential reading for all USians.
May 29, 2025
a bit too repetitive
June 8, 2023
Important account of migration and poverty for most workers.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews