The logistics of neoliberal slavery: legal production of illegality

ABSTRACT

The rapidly rising global capitalism and the increasing competition of neoliberal markets have speeded up temporary migrant workers' flow and exacerbated labor extraction through a sophisticated logistics system that contributes to neoliberal slavery in the twenty-first century. This essay argues that the legal ideology of citizenship in contemporary societies has contributed to the legal production of illegality, and consequently, new forms of internal colonization. This essay also urges the conceptualization of “citizens” to de-link with the notion of nationality based on abstract ideas of blood, religion, language, etc. “Citizens”—“city-dwellers”—should refer to those who live and work here belong to the place and should enjoy equal access to the social space. To elaborate my argument, I take the image of the sardine can at sea on Tempo magazine as a metaphorical trope for the complex logistical network that supports the neoliberal slavery system in the twenty-first century. From this axis of the logistic chain, I shall analyze the engine that drives the regeneration and transformation of the slavery system of today. The geo-historical parameters and the local economic demands are constitutive figures that pave the path to recruiting temporary migrant laborers as surplus reproductive troops. The discourse of multiculturalism is convenient for recruitment as a disguise. The juridical stipulations based on the legal ideology of citizenship further aggravate civic space's physical and symbolic violence. I shall conclude with the logistics of neoliberal slavery locked up with the citizenship ideology and propose a new conceptualization of citizenship and civil rights.

KEYWORDS:

• Neoliberal slavery
• logistical chain
• unequal citizens
• internal colonialism
• border politics
• legal ideology
• citizenship politics
• civic exclusion
• temporary migrant workers
• topological analysis

Notes

1 On 28 June 1996, 300 undocumented Africans occupied Saint Bernard church in Paris to protest against the Debré laws that threaten to separate the children from their undocumented parents (Emmons 1997). The occupation lasted for fifty days until riot police broke down the church doors with axes, using tear gas on women and babies, and dragged everyone out.

2 Alain Badiou was involved in the sans-papiers (without papers) movement since the first hunger strikes of the workers without papers in 1972. See Nail (2015).

3 See Reporter (19 December 2018) https://www.twreporter.org/a/slave-fishermen-human-trafficking-gcs-english; Reporter (1 February 2021) https://www.twreporter.org/topics/unfinished-far-sea-fishing-governance.

4 According to Reporter (2018), there are 276 Taiwan fishing vessels on official records with convenient flags of foreign nationalities. The actual figure is three times the record.

5 There are numerous reports in recent years from local news about the enslavement of migrant workers and forced laborers. In 2017, the press released the case of an Indonesian female migrant worker who has been imprisoned and forced to work in the Quansheng Laojia (筌聖老家) Food Factory for 14 years, together with other forced workers, without getting any salary nor being permitted to go home. It is only one of more than 50,000 cases of modern slavery in Taiwan (China Times 2017).

6 According to the Regulations on the Authorization and management of Overseas Employment of Foreign Crew Members, the Labor Standards Act in Taiwan cannot be applied to these foreign fishers employed overseas. These fishers are in a grey zone that no law can protect them (United News 聯合新聞網 20191003T112800Z; “Regulations on the Authorization and Management of Overseas Employment of Foreign Crew Members – Article Content - Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China” n.d.).

7 For example, the Dutch government categorized all foreigners, such as Chinese immigrants, as “Foreign Orientals.” The indigenous communities, on the other hand, are termed as “Inlander.” This arbitrary categorization bestowed these groups of people with different political statuses. It is the foundation for the racialized and ethnicized constitution of political identity in Indonesia (Thung 2012, 145-146).

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Notes on contributors

Joyce C.H. Liu

Joyce C.H. Liu, Professor of the Institute of Social Research and Cultural Studies, Director of the International Center for Cultural Studies director, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University. She also directs the International Program in Inter-Asia Cultural Studies of the University System of Taiwan. Her research fields cover geopolitics, biopolitics, border politics, internal coloniality, unequal citizens, epistemic decolonization, and artistic interventions. Currently, she is leading two ongoing joint research projects: “Conflict, Justice, Decolonization: Critical Inter-Asia Cultural Studies” (awarded by the Ministry of Education, Taiwan, 2018-2022), and “Migration, Logistics, and Unequal Citizens in the Global Context” (awarded by CHCI & Mellon Foundation, 2019-2022).