Το Εργαστήριο Κοινωνικής Πολιτικής του Τμήματος Κοινωνικής Πολιτικής του Παντείου Πανεπιστημίου διοργανώνει διάλεξη της Αναπληρώτριας Καθηγήτριας στο Queen’s University του Καναδά Δρ. Reena Krukeja (https://www.queensu.ca/devs/people/kukreja-reena) στο θέμα «Προσδιορίζοντας την εργασιακή επισφάλεια εντός του νεοφιλελευθερισμού και των περιοριστικών συνοριακών καθεστώτων: μελέτη περίπτωσης των μεταναστών εργαζομένων από τη Νότια Ασία στην Ελλάδα».
Η διάλεξη θα πραγματοποιηθεί στην αγγλική γλώσσα την Παρασκευή 17 Μαΐου και ώρα 15.00 στην αίθουσα Δ 12.
Συντονισμός: Απόστολος Καψάλης, Επικ. Καθηγητής, Πάντειο Πανεπιστήμιο.
Ακολουθούν μια περίληψη της διάλεξης και ένα σύντομο βιογραφικό της εισηγήτριας.
Situating Labour Precarity Within Neoliberalism and Restrictive Bordering Regimes: A Case Study of South Asian Migrant Workers in Greece
By Dr. Reena Kukreja, Associate Professor, Queen’s University, Canada
Over 90 percent of farm labour in Greek agriculture is done by migrant workers. The very existence of rural communities and Greece’s agrarian economy is now increasingly dependent on their continual presence. From 2018 onwards, I have been researching undocumented South Asian migrant men from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan who work in rural Greece to learn about the compulsions that make them embark on a journey that precarizes them as ‘illegal’ migrants and as an ‘exploitable’ labour force in the country. Drawing on extensive empirical research, I trace the linkage between the neoliberal agrarian crisis with increased pauperization and unemployment in rural South Asia to the increase in risky male outmigration for livelihood.
The talk argues that within Greece, that ethno-national and racial discourses underpin the denial of permanent residence and citizenship rights to migrant workers while labour regimes require the cheap labour of racialised migrants for sustenance of economies. These contradictions are evident in the recent labour agreements the country has made with many countries of the Global South. While scrutinizing attitudinal changes within agrarian communities and farmers against racialized workers such as those from South Asia, it posits that a more accommodating landscape is an instrumentalist retention strategy.
Short Bio
Dr. Kukreja is an Associate Professor in the Department of Global Development Studies with cross appointment to Gender Studies Department and affiliation with the Cultural Studies Program at Queen’s University, Canada. Her research interests and filmmaking practice focusses on bordering regimes, political economy, racism and Islamophobia in Europe, South Asian masculinities, labour, marriage migration, and caste. Her current work examines the intersections of masculinity, securitization of borders and political economy on the lives of undocumented South Asian men in Greece. As a PI, she is leading a multi-country investigation of local discourses of hate against racialized agrarian workers in three Southern European countries of Greece, Spain and Italy. She is also engaged in another study examining the impact of Far-Right populism in Europe and Canada on racialized migrant workers in the public facing gig economy.
She has published in leading journals in the fields of migration, ethnic studies, masculinities, and area studies. Her monograph on marriage migration in India, Why Would I Be Married Here? Marriage Migration and Dispossession in Neoliberal India (Cornell University Press) was published in April 2022. She was a guest editor for a Special Issue for NORMA: International Journal of Masculinity Studies titled, ‘Bordering Regimes and Transitioning Masculinities of Racialized Migrant Men: A Case Study of the EU’. She is putting the final touches to an edited volume for Palgrave titled, South Asians in Southern Europe: Examining Love, Labour, and Desire.