Abstract
One of the most helpful and widely known concepts of socialist feminism is “social reproduction”. Most often, theorists use social reproduction to discuss a wide variety of unpaid and/or unrecognized labour that is necessary to reproduce the working class; cooking, cleaning, child-bearing, child-rearing, elder care, and many other domestic activities fall under this designation. However, the working class is partially replaced in, and through, migration and immigration, not only through its own gestational reproduction. While this insight is present in many social reproduction texts, its significance is radically underdeveloped, amounting to no more than a mere mention in any of these texts and lacking any sustained treatment. This paper probes deeply into this question, arguing that, from a socialist feminist perspective, one should treat immigration itself as a form of socially reproductive labour.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
In more recent work Bhattacharya has begun to mention that generational replacement takes place not only through childbirth. As she writes in a 2017 piece: “generational replacement through childbirth in the kin-based family unit, although predominant, is not the only way a labor force may be replaced. Slavery and immigration are two of the most common ways capital has replaced labor in a bounded society” (Bhattacharya, 2017, p. 7).
- 2.
- 3.
In this account, I focus specifically on the United States. This obviously means that the generalizability of my analysis should not be taken for granted. What I attempt to do here is draw out some trends in this context; it would be helpful and interesting for others to do analyses of these same issues in other contexts and to chart similarities, differences, and relations between, and across, cases.
- 4.
“Immigrants will replenish the U.S. labor force as millions of Baby Boomers retire. The U.S. economy is facing a demographic crisis. Roughly 76 million Baby Boomers (nearly one-quarter of the U.S. population) are now starting to reach retirement age. This wave of aging over the next two decades will have a profound economic impact. Social Security and Medicare are projected to experience shortfalls. 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 each day. As a smaller number of workers and taxpayers will support a growing number of retirees, immigrants will play a critical role in replenishing the labor force and, therefore, the tax base. As the native-born population grows older and the Baby Boomers retire, immigration will prove invaluable in sustaining the U.S. labor force. Projections by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) indicate that, between 2014 and 2024, the U.S. population age 55 and older will increase by 18.2 million—reaching 102.9 million, or 38.2 percent of all people in the country. As a result, ‘replacement needs’—primarily retirements—will generate 35.3 million job openings between 2014 and 2024. On top of that, economic growth is expected to create 9.8 million additional job openings. In other words, demand for workers will increase. Yet as more and more older Americans retire, labor-force growth will actually slow, averaging only 0.5% between 2014 and 2024 (even when calculated with current rates of immigration). The rate of labor-force growth would be even lower over the coming decade if not for the influx of new immigrants into the labor market” (U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 2016, p. XX).
- 5.
AFAB stands for “assigned female at birth”, and refers to all those who were assigned this sex at birth, whether or not this accords with their gender identity.
- 6.
It is important to note, as Sayers does in the article cited above, that this insight is one that exists in Marx’s own concept of labour and is not unique to the activities grouped under material, affective, and symbolic labour. Hence when Lazzarato, Hardt, Negri, and others position these various forms of labour as critiques of Marx rather than further elaborations of his concept of labour, they have misread Marx’s own conception.
- 7.
As discussed below, the exact nature of the nuclear family’s importance differs between these thinkers.
References
Bezanson, K., & Luxton, M. (2006). Social reproduction: Feminist political economy challenges neoliberalism. McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Bhattacharya, T. (2013, September 10). What is social reproduction theory? Socialist Worker. https://socialistworker.org/2013/09/10/what-is-social-reproduction-theory
Bhattacharya, T. (Ed.). (2017). Social reproduction theory: Remapping class, recentering oppression. Pluto Press.
Chang, G. (2000). Disposable domestics: Immigrant women workers in the global economy. South End Press.
Cheng, S., & Kim, E. (2014). The paradoxes of neoliberalism: Migrant Korean sex workers in the United States and ‘sex trafficking.’ Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State, and Society, 21(3), 355–381.
Dalla Costa, G. F. (2008). The work of love: Unpaid housework, poverty & sexual violence at the dawn of the 21st century (M. Dalla Costa, Ed.; E. Brophy, Trans.). Autonomedia.
Dooley, D. S. (1990). Immoral because they’re bad, bad because they’re wrong: Sexual orientation and presumptions of parental unfitness in custody disputes. California Western Law Review, 26(2), 395–424.
Ehrenreich, B., & Hochschild, A. (2002). Global woman: Nannies, maids, and sex workers in the new economy. Henry Holt & Co.
Engels, F. (2010). The origin of the family, private property and the state (Reissue edition). Penguin Classics (original work published 1884)
Fanon, F. (2004). The wretched of the earth (R. Philcox, Trans.). Grove Press.
Farris, S. (2017). In the name of women’s rights: The rise of femonationalism. Duke University Press.
Ferguson, S. (2016). Intersectionality and social-reproduction feminisms: Toward an integrative ontology. Historical Materialism, 24(2), 38–60.
Ferguson, S. (2019). Social reproduction: What’s the big idea? Pluto Press Blog. https://www.plutobooks.com/blog/social-reproduction-theory-ferguson/
Fernandez, F. L. (2016). Hands up: A systematized review of policing sex workers in the U.S (Unpublished master’s thesis). Yale University.
Gibson-Graham, J. K. (2006). The end of capitalism (as we knew it): A feminist critique of political economy (1st ed.). University of Minnesota Press.
Gleeson, J. J. (2017, July 19). Transition and abolition: Notes on Marxism and trans politics. Viewpoint Magazine. https://www.viewpointmag.com/2017/07/19/transition-and-abolition-notes-on-marxism-and-trans-politics/
Gleeson, J. J. (2019, February). An aviary of queer social reproduction. Hypocrite Reader, 94. http://hypocritereader.com/94/eggs-queer-social-reproduction
Golash-Boza, T. (2015). Deported: Immigrant policing, disposable labor, and global capitalism. New York University Press.
Golash-Boza, T., & Hondagneu-Sotelo, P. (2013). Latino immigrant men and the deportation crisis: A gendered racial removal program. Latino Studies, 11(3), 271–292.
Griffiths, K. D. (2018, March 26). The only way out is through: A reply to Melina Cooper. Verso Blog. https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/3709-the-only-way-out-is-through-a-reply-to-melinda-cooper
Griffiths, K. D., & Gleeson, J. J. (2015). Kinderkommunismus: A feminist analysis of the 21st century family. http://isr.press/Griffiths_Gleeson_Kinderkommunismus/index.html
Hardt, M., & Negri, A. (2000). Empire. Harvard University Press.
Hennessy, R. (2006). Returning to reproduction queerly: Sex, labor, need. Rethinking Marxism, 18(3), 387–395.
Hong, G. K. (2006). The ruptures of American capital: Women of color feminism and the immigrant culture of labor. University of Minnesota Press.
Kaye, J. (2010). Moving millions: How coyote capitalism fuels global immigration. Wiley.
Kofman, E., & Raghuram, P. (2006, March). Gender and global labour migrations: Incorporating skilled workers. Antipode, 38(2), 282–303.
Lazzarato, M. (1996). Immaterial labor. In P. Virno & M. Hardt (Eds.), Radical thought in Italy: A potential politics (pp. 133–147). University of Minnesota Press.
Le Baron, G., & Roberts, A. (2010). Toward a feminist political economy of capitalism and carcerality. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture & Society, 36(1), 1–27.
Lewis, H. (2016). The politics of everybody: Feminism, queer theory and Marxism at the intersection. Zed Books.
Lewis, S. (2018a). Cyborg uterine geography: Complicating ‘care’ and social reproduction. Dialogues in Human Geography, 8(3), 300–316.
Lewis, S. (2018b, March 6). Gestators of all genders unite. Verso Blog. https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/3654-gestators-of-all-genders-unite
Mac, J., & Smith, M. (2018). Revolting prostitutes: The fight for sex workers’ rights. Verso.
Marx, K. (1959). Economic and philosophic manuscripts of 1844 (M. Milligan & D. J. Struik, Trans.). Progress Publishers.
Marx, K. (1992) Capital: Volume 1: A critique of political economy (B. Fowkes, Trans.; reprint ed.). Penguin Classics.
Mezzadra, S., & Neilson, B. (2013). Border as method, or, the multiplication of labor. Duke University Press.
Mies, M. (1999). Patriarchy and accumulation on a world scale: Women in the international division of labour (2nd ed.). Zed Books.
Passel, J. S., & Cohn, D. (2017, March 8). Immigration projected to drive growth in U.S. working-age population through at least 2035. Fact Tank: News in the Numbers. Pew Research Center. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/03/08/immigration-projected-to-drive-growth-in-u-s-working-age-population-through-at-least-2035/
Ratha, D., De, S., Kim, E. J., Plaza, S., Schuettler, K., Seshan, G., & Yameogo, N. D. (2018). Migration and remittances: Recent developments and outlook. Migration and Development. World Bank Group Knomad.
Sanmiguel-Valderrama, O. (2010). Social reproduction. In A. O’Reilly (Ed.), Encyclopedia of motherhood (Vol. 3, p. 1136). SAGE.
Sayers, S. (2007). The concept of labor: Marx and his critics. Science and Society, 71(4), 431–454.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce. (2016, April 14). Immigration: Myths and facts. https://www.uschamber.com/sites/default/files/documents/files/022851_mythsfacts_2016_report_final.pdf
Vogel, L. (2014). Marxism and the oppression of women: Toward a unitary theory (S. Ferguson & D. McNally, Eds.; reprint ed.). Brill.
Weeks, K. (2011). The problem with work: Feminism, Marxism, antiwork politics, and postwork imaginaries. Duke University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bohrer, A.J. (2022). Wages for Immigration! Labour and Social Reproduction Under Contemporary Capitalism. In: Ritchie, G., Carpenter, S., Mojab, S. (eds) Marxism and Migration. Marx, Engels, and Marxisms. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98839-5_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98839-5_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-98838-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-98839-5
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)