Including Labour Migration in the Basic Structure of Liberal Democratic States

The structural reliance on migrant labour by many contemporary democracies has long been an observable fact. Recently, the Covid-19 pandemic has forcefully brought it to the attention of governments and of the public. In the initial months of the pandemic, when even short-distance human circulation faced severe restrictions and most states were sealing their borders, various OECD countries established special corridors for foreign agricultural workers during the harvesting season (European Commission 2020; Corrado and Palumbo 2022). Concurrently, governments undertook massive programs of regularization of migrant labour to ensure that they could continue to provide their services while implementing prophylactic measures. Caregivers, nurses, agricultural workers, food processors—all professions that include a significant number of migrant laborers—were officially recognized with the status of “essential workers” (Paul 2020; Reid et al. 2021). Some scholars hoped that this realization of the essential role played by migrant labour might prompt a long due change of attitude of host countries toward labour migrants, and a parallel reconsideration of the “effective membership” held by immigrant workers (Martiniello and Triandafyllidou 2021; Triandafyllidou 2022). Unfortunately, with the end of the crisis, things seem to have gone back to business as usual. Much like the migratory movements spurred by wars, climate disasters, or persecution, labour immigration is perceived as something that should not take place in ordinary circumstances. Accordingly, it is seen as an exogenous phenomenon with which liberal democracies must cope by significantly altering, adapting, or even suspending the working of their fundamental economic, welfare, social, and political institutions. As a result, labour immigration policies tend to have an exceptional, remedial, and ad hoc character, and are presented as such to the public and immigrants themselves. It should be obvious that a serious mismatch exists between the reality of labour immigration, which plays such an essential role in the functioning of liberal societies, and the narrative that permeates their public imaginary and discourses. This paper takes up the invitation to reconsider the relation between labour immigrants and the liberal state by revisiting the Rawlsian notion of the domestic “basic structure” (Rawls 1993, 1999 ch 7), which contemporary liberal theory has regularly employed to characterize the internal setup of liberal democratic societies. The basic structure of society is the set of its major institutions, which provides the background on which all transactions within society take place and the fundamental terms of social cooperation. My main contention is that labour immigration is an essential, constitutive element of the setup of contemporary liberal democratic societies. Therefore, not only should the institutions that regulate labour immigration be integral to their domestic basic structure, but the overall architecture of the latter should be arranged accordingly. This claim may face objections, as some might view the relevance of migrant work as a mere fact about the present world, rather than a feature of the aspirational ideal of the liberal democratic state that is conveyed in the classical theorisations of its basic structure. In the discussion that follows, I take the normative, aspirational import of the idea of basic structure seriously, by claiming that including the institutions of labour immigration in the domestic basic structure has significant normative consequences. However, I insist that theorizing the domestic basic structure in abstraction from the fact of labour immigration is an exercise in bad idealization, which serves the ideological purpose of obliterating the essential contribution that labour immigrants make to the functioning of liberal societies. The argument unfolds as follows. The first section reviews the debate between statist and cosmopolitan approaches to immigration, stressing how both camps seem to assume that recognizing the normative import of immigration for liberal theory implies overcoming the domestic basic structure of liberal states as the relevant unit of analysis. The next two sections challenge this assumption by first that the domestic basic structure should be as the of a of social and by how such a of in contemporary liberal the massive contribution of foreign In the I the that the working of liberal democracies be as a normative it is by their and their present of foreign In the I present two main of the basic structure as the institutions of labour The debate on the liberal of is by about the and normative relevance of the liberal democratic the of contention the that the special political by the institutions of the liberal state should to fundamental cosmopolitan of in the to on the a of as a of the the of liberal that they the of liberal democratic states to their and have in their policies and 2022). scholars this they that the special political by states cosmopolitan of such as of or of and a fundamental they the claim that liberal states are such by special this a challenge to the relevance of the states from the of 2021; on to the of states in the on the of attention to and of as the of the and normative on present this debate be the by the “basic a notion that has played a role in contemporary liberal of in about the of the of states the of cosmopolitan As in its classical the basic structure the major institutions of which of their (Rawls As an the notion of basic structure to the and normative of the economic, social and political institutions that characterize liberal democratic societies. The basic structure of that is the of its major institutions, is and in main It the and of the of the of a political and the special and that from their It has a on the and of the It the background within which transactions and take place within the (Rawls In of such and their normative the basic structure of society is to be the of special of political to immigration, the debate between and as a about two of the relevance of the domestic basic is the social, and political institutions of liberal democratic the of the and normative of the domestic basic structure, to and the of the domestic by challenge the of the domestic basic structure, of the they to of the special that from or they claim that the basic structure, that is the that social has a on the of its and background of the or rather than by the of the liberal state all in this debate seem to a that the domestic social and political of the liberal that a exists between the of the liberal state as a political and of This assumption both normative and the of and special of the domestic political are with the cosmopolitan of assume that the relevant basic structure is and of an of that the relevant basic structure state to include and and and including immigrants within the of the the basic structure to the domestic basic structure as the relevant unit of it is that immigration is to is an with the assumption that immigration is and the internal set up and fundamental institutions of liberal democratic that in the their basic structure. how this in two main of debate the of The first the functioning of democratic institutions as a feature of the liberal basic structure. The notion that the architecture of the basic institutions of liberal democratic states the assumption that domestic democratic institutions work their when a exists and the of political to all on the of the this is to include immigrants and it is by to democratic that the domestic basic structure and have a cosmopolitan such as the or the In both including immigrants in the normative of democratic to cosmopolitan the of the domestic basic structure as the relevant of normative analysis. debate work the that not to the domestic basic structure the of immigration on the and of host that the of migrant labour have a on the setup of the main is that immigrants may and for workers, are the to labour immigration workers by the from from immigrant that is and As as may they labour immigration as to the functioning of domestic and institutions, to be ad hoc I back to the democratic and the of labour to how it to of immigration as a of the domestic of the liberal state to be with ad as a phenomenon that the of liberal theory only by a cosmopolitan normative and which the statist on the domestic basic structure. to in the next two sections I that is to the idea of the domestic basic structure of the liberal state as a relevant and of of the domestic basic structure should be as institutions, and that to the of workers the of the that labour I that labour immigration is a feature of the setup of contemporary liberal Therefore, the institutions labour immigration should not be as or ad hoc but as integral to the domestic liberal democratic The and of the claim that the institutions labour should be as integral to the domestic basic structure of liberal democratic states on by “basic As in the the debate the basic structure as the of political on a of normative and in this the of which the notion of basic structure should be within a normative theory of political The notion of basic structure has an on the it to institutions that as a of fact a on the when of the basic structure of a liberal democratic it an that institutions as they should in to in the (Rawls are two in which this aspirational and ideal of the basic structure to the the basic structure an ideal in the that the of a liberal political as a should be arranged as to terms of cooperation. This is the by take the of states as their and how the set of institutions their domestic basic structure should be to ensure to the the basic structure is aspirational and ideal in the that in theorizing should from institutions and the from This has played a role in the of the cosmopolitan it be that the of the domestic basic structure of states is should not the reality as it is but the and ideal state of in which institutions, from of the are in place and In follows, I not in this debate between I take up a but essential which in how should the domestic basic structure of the liberal state it to In this argument statist of the of immigration, which assume that the domestic basic structure is significant of its and take the of the domestic basic structure of liberal states as a However, it cosmopolitan to the that they seem to the notion of the and of the domestic basic structure. I that the of the domestic basic structure of liberal states by states as the is to a it in the and normative of the domestic basic structure of liberal states as they in the present a provides on how to of the domestic basic structure of liberal democratic states and the of in to it and the relevance of the basic structure of liberal states should be by it as a set of and that and an of cooperation. 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