Moving Labor Power and Historical Forms of Migration: The Internationalist Socialist Worker, the Social Benefit Tourist and the Economic Migrant By Raia Apostolova Submitted to Central European University Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Supervisors: Professor Prem Kumar Rajaram Professor Dan Rabinowitz Budapest, Hungary CEU eTD Collection 2017 Statement I hereby state that this dissertation contains no materials accepted for any other degrees in any other institutions. The thesis contains no material previously written and/or published by another person, except where appropriate acknowledgment is made in the form of bibliographical reference. Budapest, September 31, 2017 CEU eTD Collection Table of Contents INTRODUCTION FORMS OF MOVEMENT .................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE THE METHODOLOGY BEHIND MOVING LABOR POWER .......................... 10 1.1. What is Moving Labor Power?.............................................................................................. 10 1.2. Methodological Liberalism: Liberal Philisophy and the Praxis of Movement ..................... 12 1.3. Approaching Movement from the Point of View of Labor Power ......................................... 22 1.4. Movement: The Potentiality and Actuality of Capitalism ..................................................... 31 1.5. Organized and Anarchic Forms of Migration ....................................................................... 34 1.6. Mapping the Thesis ............................................................................................................... 40 1.7. Method ................................................................................................................................... 44 PART ONE THE INTERNATIONALIST SOCIALIST WORKER AND THE VIETNAM- BULGARIA LABOR CONTRACTS ................................................................................................... 49 CHAPTER TWO MOVING LABOR POWER: BETWEEN EXTENSIVE AND INTENSIVE MODE OF PRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 51 2.1. Socialism and Its Mode of Production ....................................................................................... 51 2.2 Transitions Before the Transition ................................................................................................ 54 2.3. Socialism and Labor Power ....................................................................................................... 58 2.3.1. What is wrong with extensity? ............................................................................................. 60 2.4. Why Did Socialism Need Imported Labor? Socialist Presuppositions in Moving Labor Power 61 2.4.1. Moving labor power in socialism and the question of social reproduction ........................ 63 2.5. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 66 CHAPTER THREE THE SPECIFICS OF MOVING LABOR POWER INTO SOCIALIST BULGARIA .......................................................................................................................................... 68 3.1. Vietnam Was at First Egypt: Moving Labor Power and the Risk of Exchange Rates ................ 70 3.2. The 1973 Agreement: ‘Fraternal Solidarity! Absolute Unity!’ .................................................. 74 3.3. Chasing After Debt ..................................................................................................................... 81 3.4. The 1980 Agreement and the Manufacturing of the New Vietnamese........................................ 84 CEU eTD Collection CHAPTER FOUR FROM LABOR POWER IN MOTION TO UNDESIRABLE RACE: THE CRAFTING OF PURE RACE FOR PURE MARKETS ...................................................................... 94 4.1. Socialist Vidachim, Its Everyday and Its Foreign Workers ........................................................ 96 4.2. The Trade Unions and the Foreign Workers ............................................................................ 104 4.2.1. 1980: Towards full integration? ........................................................................................ 105 4.3. Socio-Economic Context of the Transition’s First Years: Primitive Accumulation ................. 108 4.4. Legal and Economic Framework in the First Years of the Transition .................................... 112 4.5. Vidachim: From Production to Destruction ............................................................................. 114 4.6. The Crafting of Anti-Vietnamism.............................................................................................. 116 4.6.1. Primitive accumulation and race ................................................................................ 116 4.7. Anti-Vietnamism: An Epitome of Anti-Foreignism ................................................................... 125 4.8 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 127 PART TWO THE SOCIAL BENEFIT TOURIST AND FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT ................ 129 II.1. Social Movements for Freedom of Movement ......................................................................... 134 CHAPTER FIVE MOVING LABOR POWER: BETWEEN BENEFIT TOURISM AND FREE MOVEMENT ...................................................................................................................................... 141 5.1. The Structure of the “Social Benefit Tourist” .......................................................................... 141 5.2. The Articulation of the Social Benefit Tourist: “Free Movement Within Europe Needs to Be Less Free.” ...................................................................................................................................... 144 5.3. Historical Forms of Free Movement: Freedom of Movement in the Context of the European Union ............................................................................................................................................... 149 5.3.1. Free movement and the market ......................................................................................... 149 5.3.2. Is freedom of movement utopia? ........................................................................................ 155 5.3.3. The production of regular labor on hold within the framework of free movement ........... 157 5.3.4. Self-employment in the context of moving labor power .................................................... 162 5.3.5. The role of municipalities in pauperization ....................................................................... 164 5.4. Suspending Movement within the Framework of Freed Movement ......................................... 168 5.5. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 171 CHAPTER SIX POLICING FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT AND DISPERSING OF MOVING LABOR POWER ................................................................................................................................ 174 6.1. Policing Freedom of Movement ............................................................................................... 176 6.2. Organizing Those Who Move ................................................................................................... 184 6.2.1. (Re)Normalizing the norm ................................................................................................. 187 6.2.2. Mall of Shame and its Romanian Workers: “The Bulgarians told us our resistance will not last for long” ............................................................................................................................... 190 6.3. Freedom of Movement: To Escape a Habit .............................................................................. 195 CEU eTD Collection 6.4. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 201 PART THREE THE ECONOMIC MIGRANT AND THE ASYLUM SYSTEM............................ 203 CHAPTER SEVEN THE ECONOMIC MIGRANT AND HER HOST .......................................... 207 7.1. The Coming Out of the Refugee/Migrant Debate ..................................................................... 207 7.2. Historicizing the Binary ........................................................................................................... 210 7.3. The Logic Behind Violence and Its Historical Position in the Production of Political/Economic Migrants .......................................................................................................................................... 212 7.3.1. The pre-migration world and the “economy” ................................................................... 213 7.3.2. History and the Refugee .................................................................................................... 216 7.4. The Dichotomy in Migration Studies and Its Ideological Presupposition ............................... 220 7.5. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 223 CHAPTER EIGHT