Published
Mar 12, 2024Page count
156 pagesISBN
978-1529212723Imprint
Bristol University PressPublished
Sep 29, 2022Page count
156 pagesISBN
978-1529212716Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Bristol University PressPublished
Sep 29, 2022Page count
156 pagesISBN
978-1529212730Imprint
Bristol University PressPublished
Sep 29, 2022Page count
156 pagesISBN
978-1529212730Imprint
Bristol University Press
Robots and Immigrants
Who steals jobs? Who owns jobs?
Focusing on the competitive labour market, this book scrutinises the narratives created around immigration and automation. The authors explore how the advances in AI and demands for constant flow of immigrant workers eradicate political and working rights, fuelling fears over job theft and ownership.
Shedding light on the multiple ways in which employment is used as an instrument of neoliberal governance, this revealing book sparks new debate on the role of automation and migration policies. It is an invaluable resource for academics and practitioners working in the areas of immigration and labour, capitalism and social exclusion, and economic models and political governance.
“Theoretically outstanding and empirically informed, Maronitis and Pencheva present us with a magisterial account of the societal and moral concerns of restrictive immigration regimes, with rapid rescaling of work conducted by robots, AI and algorithms. While immigrants labour in dirty, dangerous and demeaning conditions, automation solutions alleviate – though also replace – (the need for) migrant workers.” Roxana Barbulescu, University of Leeds
"The story told in Robots and Immigrants is not just of how in Brexit Britain key themes have coalesced to define political discourses and policies, but how new technologies and strangers continue to animate excitement and fear. Tapping into core sociological problems, the book updates their tenets through a detailed, contextually attentive examination of the passions and the interests still animating modern societies.” Gregory Schwartz, University of Bristol
Kostas Maronitis is Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Leeds Trinity University.
Denny Pencheva is Lecturer in European Politics and Public Policy at University College London.
1. Introduction: Stealing Jobs
2. The Re-Birth of Homo Oeconomicus: Self and Other, Immigrants and Robot
3. “A Necessary Evil”: Progress Through Normalising Inequalities and Competition
4. I, Robot
5. The Men Machines: Migrants as Robots
6. Expensive Robots vs Cheap Migrants
7. Nostalgia, Futurism and the Re-emergence of the Common
