The New Helots: Migrants in the International Division of Labour

Front Cover
Taylor & Francis, Sep 29, 2023 - Social Science - 310 pages

Originally published in 1987 and now reissued with a substantial introduction by Robin Cohen, this wide-ranging work of comparative and historical sociology argues that a major engine of capital’s growth lies in its ability to find successive cohorts of quasi-free workers to deploy in the farms, mines and factories of an expanding international division of labour. These workers, like the helots of ancient Greece, are found at the periphery of ‘regional political economies’ or in the form of modern migrants, sucked into the vortex of metropolitan service or manufacturing industry. The regions of Southern Africa; the USA and the circum-Caribbean; European and its colonial and southern hinterlands, are systematically compared – yielding original and, in some cases, uncomfortable analogies between countries previously thought to be wholly different in terms of their political structures and guiding values. The New Helots has been written with both an undergraduate and professional readership in mind. Students of history, sociology and economics as well as those interested in patterns of migration and ethnic relations will find it of interest.

 

Selected pages

Contents

List of tables and figures
the US and its labour reservoirs
southern Africa
Europe
regulating the supplies of migrant labour
the experience of migrant workers
plus ça change
References
Copyright

Other editions - View all

The New Helots: Migrants in the International Division of Labour
Robin Cohen
Snippet view - 1987
The New Helots: Migrants in the International Division of Labour
ROBIN. COHEN
No preview available - 2023

Common terms and phrases

agricultural labour aliens areas argue argument Bantustan Botswana Bracero Bracero Program Britain British capital capitalist Caribbean cent Chamber of Mines Chapter cited colonial countries division of labour domestic Dominican Republic effect employers employment European example foreign workers forms Germany global growers growth Haitian helots ideological illegal workers immigration important increased industrial international division labour force labour market labour power labour regime labour reservoirs labour supply Lesotho London major manufacturing Marx Mexican Mexico migrant labour migrant workers million miners mineworkers mode of production Mozambique NIDL theory Operation Wetback organization peasant period plantation population Portuguese post-war precariat Puerto Rican recruitment refugees regional political economy reproduction of labour restrictions Rico Riekert rural sector slavery slaves social South African southern Africa structure supply of labour Third World Transkei unfree labour urban wage West Germany women zones

About the author (2023)

Robin Cohen is Emeritus Professor of Development Studies at the University of Oxford. For the first decade of his academic career, he worked on comparative labour issues. His books included Labour and Politics in Nigeria (1974) and the co-edited collections The development of an African working class (1975), International Labour and the Third World (1987), African Labor History (1978) and the current title, Peasants and Proletarians. He subsequently wrote on the themes of migration, globalization and diasporas. His best-known work is Global diasporas: An introduction (3rd edition, 2022).

Bibliographic information

TitleThe New Helots: Migrants in the International Division of Labour
Routledge Revivals
AuthorRobin Cohen
PublisherTaylor & Francis, 2023
ISBN100382840X, 9781003828402
Length310 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social
Social Science / Emigration & Immigration
Social Science / Ethnic Studies / General
Social Science / Race & Ethnic Relations
Social Science / Regional Studies
Social Science / Sociology / General
Social Science / Sociology / Social Theory
  
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