The Political Dynamics of Inclusion: Noncitizen Workers in Ethnocratic States

Research into migrant workers suggests noncitizens are subject to tensions between their inclusion for labour and their exclusion as the ethnic ‘other’. These tensions are held in balance by a stable configuration of state and social actors. However, a security crisis provides an opportunity for actors to shift the balance towards their interests and is likely to strengthen the exclusionary logic. We analyse the labour market in Israel/Palestine following the extreme crisis of October 2023, to show how actors shift the inclusionary/exclusionary balance and how this impacts the entry and employment terms of noncitizen workers. We find that while crisis enables actors to challenge the status quo, key logics underpinning that status quo are resilient, and neoliberal inclusionary pressures persist even during extreme security crises. We thus reveal the structural constraints that market economies place on ethnonational projects, including ethnocracies with a powerful ethnonational ethos expressed in populist racist politics.