Dr Zakaria Sajir
Zakaria Sajir holds a PhD in Migration Studies from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom (June 2018), and a Master in European and International Studies from the School of International Studies (University of Trento) in Italy (March 2011).
He is currently a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Economy, Geography y Demography (IEGD) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
His main research interests include:
- Local policies on migration/ethnic issues;
- Local democracy and political participation of migrant/ethnic minorities;
- Educational gap of migrant/ethnic minorities;
- Online and offline social networks;
- Organisational and transnational networks of migrant/ethnic minorities;
- Migration of migrant/ethnic minorities (focusing on unaccompanied minors and economic migrants) and human trafficking;
- Discrimination, racism, and Islamophobia;
- Radicalisation and security;
- Survey design and methods.
Phone: (+34) 916 441 166
Address: C/ Albasanz, 26-28, 3rd floor, Module E, Office 3E18
28037 Madrid, Spain
He is currently a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Economy, Geography y Demography (IEGD) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
His main research interests include:
- Local policies on migration/ethnic issues;
- Local democracy and political participation of migrant/ethnic minorities;
- Educational gap of migrant/ethnic minorities;
- Online and offline social networks;
- Organisational and transnational networks of migrant/ethnic minorities;
- Migration of migrant/ethnic minorities (focusing on unaccompanied minors and economic migrants) and human trafficking;
- Discrimination, racism, and Islamophobia;
- Radicalisation and security;
- Survey design and methods.
Phone: (+34) 916 441 166
Address: C/ Albasanz, 26-28, 3rd floor, Module E, Office 3E18
28037 Madrid, Spain
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Papers by Dr Zakaria Sajir
La Red Europea de Lucha contra la Pobreza y la Exclusión Social en el Estado Español (EAPN ES) ha dado a conocer su X Informe sobre El Estado de la Pobreza (octubre 2020). Dicho documento, elaborado a partir de fuentes de información oficiales, pone de manifiesto diversas realidades preocupantes en relación con la pobreza y la exclusión social, pese a que los datos que refleja se refieren al año 2019, es decir, antes de producirse la pandemia ocasionada por la COVID-19 y sus devastadores efectos.
migrant-origin from Morocco. The main objective is to explore how con-
textual factors shape the political engagement of this group. In addition,
the varying migration trajectories and histories of settlement in Europe of
this large, heterogeneous, stigmatised, and understudied group are made
visible. I begin by advancing my own conception of political integration,
adding to work that seeks to fill a gap in the literature on migrant integra-
tion, which has predominantly focused on the social and economic aspects.
Using this concept, I analyse the attitudinal and behavioural forms of politi-
cal engagement expressed by the members of the Moroccan-origin commu-
nities residing in Brussels, Lyon, Turin, Barcelona, and Madrid. I use survey
data from the LOCALMULTIDEM project, a sister project, and an original
survey in Turin that I designed and conducted. I investigated how contex-
tual factors—the presence of local voting rights in favour of non-European
nationals and the strength of the anti-discrimination policies implemented
in the countries of residence—can shape the way Moroccan-origin individ-
uals engage in their countries of residence. I conducted a series of multivari-
ate analyses whilst controlling for the influence of individual attributes, like
gender, age, and education. The results produced do not provide evidence
in support of the argument that the extension of local voting rights in favour
of migrant-origin individuals can stimulate their political engagement. The
Moroccan-origin individuals residing in Brussels, the only city where non-
European nationals can take part in local elections, do not have a higher
chance to be engaged in politics. However, the findings suggest that the
Moroccan-origin communities residing in countries implementing stronger
and intermediate anti-discrimination policies (Belgium, France, and Italy)
can express their voice through a wider set of political acts.
In this article I provide a contribution to the ongoing discussion on the approach developed by Jason W. Moore in the field of International Relations, known as “World-Ecology”. Through this perspective I analyze the agreements that are negotiated between core and semi-periphery states, and the periphery states in the African continent in the field of trade, migration, security and employment.
Recent studies analysed the agreements negotiated between the core, semi-periphery and periphery states from very different perspectives. For example, from an economic point of view, previous research has highlighted the link between migration and development or analysed the increasing dependence on the migrant workforce in some specific sectors in the global center. Other studies opted for a more “social” standpoint and analysed the process of integration of migrant- origin workforce from periphery states in the socio-economic fabric of core states. A third group of studies focused on the repercussions that security agreements have on regular and irregular migrants coming from periphery states. Other scholars have investigated the environmental impact of the appropriation of raw materials and energy following (dis)agreements between core, semi-periphery, and periphery states.
All these contributions help to shed light on the core-periphery relations from different angles. Yet, Moore’s World-Ecology perspective can help us go beyond the intrinsic limitations of these “compartmentalised” approaches and activate a holistic re-reading of these core-periphery relations in the field of migration, trade, security and employment. In this article, I focus on these agreements to demonstrate how this perspective can be used to theorise those strategic and dialectical bundles of human and extra-human relations that are at the foundation of the global capitalist civilisation.
As I will show, core-periphery state agreements provide the structure through which patterns and relationships of power and production within nature can be co-produced, exerting continuous pressure on human and extra-human nature to keep it cheap. Moore refers in this regard to the “Four Cheaps”: labour, food, energy, and raw materials, and the tendency of capitalism to appropriate them with as little capital as possible, or even better free of charge in order to generate surplus value and an ecological surplus. Core-periphery state agreements serve to extend the zone of appropriation and set up new streams of the Four Cheaps. Core-periphery state agreements are the Janus face of capitalism: if on the one hand they exert pressure to keep nature cheap, on the other hand, the same dynamics of negotiation inherent in these agreements progressively leads to the exhaustion of capitalism’s Cheap Nature strategy.
Core-periphery state agreements include, for example, the temporal migration programs signed between the European Union and the periphery states in Africa with the explicit aim of providing cheap labour to specific sectors (e.g. social care) in the global centre that would otherwise need higher remuneration and much better working conditions to motivate core states’ autochthonous labour power. These programs also result in promoting a specific type of migrant-origin labour force: temporal, circular, vulnerable, and therefore cheap. In turn, the promotion of this type of migration solidifies hierarchical and dualistic constructions within the labour market. Moore’s World-Ecology perspective can also be used to place emphasis on the link between migration, cheap labour, and the production of cheap food. The function of labour reserves, which in the past was covered by slaves and colonized labour, is today entrusted to migrants from the global periphery.
This article also analyses the trade agreements between core, semi-periphery and periphery states for their role in securing cheap energy and raw materials. Core-periphery trade (dis)agreements are primarily power relations that mobilize and recombine human and extra-human natures, and that have as their purpose the endless accumulation and production of global spaces of appropriation. The packages of trade agreements signed between the core, semi-periphery and periphery states are also closely linked to security measures. Security is not a by-product of these agreements, but rather a constitutive element of the negotiations, through which interlocking agencies of capital, science, and political power together release new sources of free or low-cost human and extra-human natures for capital accumulation. Going beyond the consideration that the proliferation of fences of razor wire and walls around the globe is a valid indicator of the flourishing state experienced by the security industry in the current phase of capitalism, once we embrace the World-Ecology perspective we can see how the security agreements between core, semi-periphery and periphery state alter extra-human and human nature. In fact, securitarian measures are inserted in pre-existing geographical patterns and social structures (re)producing clusters of nature hierarchized according to historical-geographical specificities, and patterns of race, gender, and class. Here I think for example about the categories of Arabised North Africa (e.g. the Maghreb) vs the rest of “Black” Africa or the category of “illegal” migrant vs “legal” migrant, which are solidified through the security “deals” struck between core, semi-periphery states and periphery states.
In addition to its introduction and conclusions, this article has three sections. The first section establishes the main features of Moore’s World-Ecology perspective that will be developed throughout the article. In the second section, the article isolates four broad reasons that help us understand how and why agreements between core, semi-periphery and periphery countries can accelerate the decline of the ecological surplus and presents the main argument around which the article revolves: while in the past, appropriation practices combined with the global market and technological innovations ensured rapid global expansions, based on the identification, codification, and rationalization of the Cheap Natures, notably through the practices of colonisation and slavery,today this “advantage” is no longer available. Moreover, the identification, appropriation and mobilization of uncapitalised nature must undergo long, tedious, and above all expensive core-periphery negotiations, which ultimately take the form of agreement packages that include measures in the field of trade, migration, security, and employment. The third section further develops this argument by applying it to the concrete case of the African periphery countries. In the concluding remarks, the article highlights the dual characters of the core, semi-periphery and periphery state agreements and reflects on the nature of the ongoing crisis.
The core-periphery agreements analysed in this article are certainly a display of capitalism’s adaptive power, yet at the same time core-(semi)periphery negotiations accelerate the crisis of modernity-in-nature by exhausting the Cheap Nature, making everything less cheap, and at fast speed, as evidenced by the last commodity supercycle and the one on the horizon. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the fragilities of the global capitalist economy and woken up post-capitalist imaginaries. However, as of today it is an open question as to whether we are facing a developmental crisis of capitalism, which can be solved within the boundaries of the neoliberal order through new rounds of accumulation and commodification, or we are witnessing instead the beginning of an epochal crisis marked by an irreversible decline of capitalism’s capacity to restructure itself as the mode of organisation of human and extra-human nature.
Keywords
Four Cheaps; capitalism; agreements; core-periphery; crisis; super-cycle; Africa.
The research findings show that most stories used human interest frames and foregrounded migrant experiences. The migrants’ main contributions to the stories were to provide a human face to hardships and suffering. Meanwhile, NGOs were included to provide facts, statements of general causes of migrations, statistics, and a sense of scale. Government statements were used to provide a comment on policies and solutions. Most articles were supportive in their sentiments to the plight of
migrants.
Participants in the focus groups (especially migrants themselves) recognised that migrant voices were missing from mainstream media reporting on migration, that reporting on migration tends to be negative, and that there are pressing issues relating to migration that need to be discussed in the public sphere.
Focus group participants generally responded with empathy and understanding in response to stories about the hardships migrants face. Some stories provoked a distancing or disruption to understanding, especially when an aspect of the story did not match their prior tacit or cultural knowledge about migration. A small number of stories deeply moved focus group participants.
The report unpacks how an emphasis on ‘voice’ in this context can inadvertently lead to an under-interrogation of systemic and structural issues by individualising, and in some cases, perpetuating a representation of migrants as helpless victims.
The best practices identified from the programme include:
• Use existing resources to help identify sensitive terminology for reporting about migration
• Respect audiences as knowledgeable and discerning.
• Avoid thinking in dichotomies (especially ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ stories). Instead, work towards nuances when exploring stories.
• Be aware of the consequences of individualising migrant voices and ignoring systemic and structural factors.
• Unpack the local context as much and as accurately as possible.
• Use accessible, sharable and in-depth media forms that people trust.
• Continue supporting local journalists to write informed stories about migration.
In this paper, we will analyse both vectors past/present and solidarities/tensions through a multi-level perspective, which is concretized in two layers: inter-state solidarities (macro level) and intra-state solidarities (meso level). We want to complement Harari’s vision by delving into an attitudinal analysis of States, collectives and individuals, the very same actors who will cope with the changes exceptionally outlined by Harari. These two levels will be complemented in the conclusions with a third one: micro-level, that is the individual sphere, identified as the actual crossroad of this coronavirus crisis.
Per contro, meno attenzione ha ricevuto ad oggi lo studio di queste pratiche di ibridazione del linguaggio adottate all’interno del contesto familiare da parte di membri della stessa generazione e membri di differente generazione. Ciò pare ancora più rilevante nel caso italiano, dove l’analisi di tali pratiche pare particolarmente carente. Presentando le pratiche di ibridazione del linguaggio dei membri delle prime e seconde generazioni e degli individui di generazione 1.5 di origine marocchina residenti in Italia, tale contributo si propone di mettere in luce quali forme di ibridazione del linguaggio inter-generazionale ed intra-generazionale vengono prodotte e ri-prodotte all’interno della comunità marocchina in Italia, tenendo in conto i differenti livelli di competenza linguistica dell’italiano e arabo, e quali funzioni svolgono all’interno del contesto familiare.
La Red Europea de Lucha contra la Pobreza y la Exclusión Social en el Estado Español (EAPN ES) ha dado a conocer su X Informe sobre El Estado de la Pobreza (octubre 2020). Dicho documento, elaborado a partir de fuentes de información oficiales, pone de manifiesto diversas realidades preocupantes en relación con la pobreza y la exclusión social, pese a que los datos que refleja se refieren al año 2019, es decir, antes de producirse la pandemia ocasionada por la COVID-19 y sus devastadores efectos.
migrant-origin from Morocco. The main objective is to explore how con-
textual factors shape the political engagement of this group. In addition,
the varying migration trajectories and histories of settlement in Europe of
this large, heterogeneous, stigmatised, and understudied group are made
visible. I begin by advancing my own conception of political integration,
adding to work that seeks to fill a gap in the literature on migrant integra-
tion, which has predominantly focused on the social and economic aspects.
Using this concept, I analyse the attitudinal and behavioural forms of politi-
cal engagement expressed by the members of the Moroccan-origin commu-
nities residing in Brussels, Lyon, Turin, Barcelona, and Madrid. I use survey
data from the LOCALMULTIDEM project, a sister project, and an original
survey in Turin that I designed and conducted. I investigated how contex-
tual factors—the presence of local voting rights in favour of non-European
nationals and the strength of the anti-discrimination policies implemented
in the countries of residence—can shape the way Moroccan-origin individ-
uals engage in their countries of residence. I conducted a series of multivari-
ate analyses whilst controlling for the influence of individual attributes, like
gender, age, and education. The results produced do not provide evidence
in support of the argument that the extension of local voting rights in favour
of migrant-origin individuals can stimulate their political engagement. The
Moroccan-origin individuals residing in Brussels, the only city where non-
European nationals can take part in local elections, do not have a higher
chance to be engaged in politics. However, the findings suggest that the
Moroccan-origin communities residing in countries implementing stronger
and intermediate anti-discrimination policies (Belgium, France, and Italy)
can express their voice through a wider set of political acts.
In this article I provide a contribution to the ongoing discussion on the approach developed by Jason W. Moore in the field of International Relations, known as “World-Ecology”. Through this perspective I analyze the agreements that are negotiated between core and semi-periphery states, and the periphery states in the African continent in the field of trade, migration, security and employment.
Recent studies analysed the agreements negotiated between the core, semi-periphery and periphery states from very different perspectives. For example, from an economic point of view, previous research has highlighted the link between migration and development or analysed the increasing dependence on the migrant workforce in some specific sectors in the global center. Other studies opted for a more “social” standpoint and analysed the process of integration of migrant- origin workforce from periphery states in the socio-economic fabric of core states. A third group of studies focused on the repercussions that security agreements have on regular and irregular migrants coming from periphery states. Other scholars have investigated the environmental impact of the appropriation of raw materials and energy following (dis)agreements between core, semi-periphery, and periphery states.
All these contributions help to shed light on the core-periphery relations from different angles. Yet, Moore’s World-Ecology perspective can help us go beyond the intrinsic limitations of these “compartmentalised” approaches and activate a holistic re-reading of these core-periphery relations in the field of migration, trade, security and employment. In this article, I focus on these agreements to demonstrate how this perspective can be used to theorise those strategic and dialectical bundles of human and extra-human relations that are at the foundation of the global capitalist civilisation.
As I will show, core-periphery state agreements provide the structure through which patterns and relationships of power and production within nature can be co-produced, exerting continuous pressure on human and extra-human nature to keep it cheap. Moore refers in this regard to the “Four Cheaps”: labour, food, energy, and raw materials, and the tendency of capitalism to appropriate them with as little capital as possible, or even better free of charge in order to generate surplus value and an ecological surplus. Core-periphery state agreements serve to extend the zone of appropriation and set up new streams of the Four Cheaps. Core-periphery state agreements are the Janus face of capitalism: if on the one hand they exert pressure to keep nature cheap, on the other hand, the same dynamics of negotiation inherent in these agreements progressively leads to the exhaustion of capitalism’s Cheap Nature strategy.
Core-periphery state agreements include, for example, the temporal migration programs signed between the European Union and the periphery states in Africa with the explicit aim of providing cheap labour to specific sectors (e.g. social care) in the global centre that would otherwise need higher remuneration and much better working conditions to motivate core states’ autochthonous labour power. These programs also result in promoting a specific type of migrant-origin labour force: temporal, circular, vulnerable, and therefore cheap. In turn, the promotion of this type of migration solidifies hierarchical and dualistic constructions within the labour market. Moore’s World-Ecology perspective can also be used to place emphasis on the link between migration, cheap labour, and the production of cheap food. The function of labour reserves, which in the past was covered by slaves and colonized labour, is today entrusted to migrants from the global periphery.
This article also analyses the trade agreements between core, semi-periphery and periphery states for their role in securing cheap energy and raw materials. Core-periphery trade (dis)agreements are primarily power relations that mobilize and recombine human and extra-human natures, and that have as their purpose the endless accumulation and production of global spaces of appropriation. The packages of trade agreements signed between the core, semi-periphery and periphery states are also closely linked to security measures. Security is not a by-product of these agreements, but rather a constitutive element of the negotiations, through which interlocking agencies of capital, science, and political power together release new sources of free or low-cost human and extra-human natures for capital accumulation. Going beyond the consideration that the proliferation of fences of razor wire and walls around the globe is a valid indicator of the flourishing state experienced by the security industry in the current phase of capitalism, once we embrace the World-Ecology perspective we can see how the security agreements between core, semi-periphery and periphery state alter extra-human and human nature. In fact, securitarian measures are inserted in pre-existing geographical patterns and social structures (re)producing clusters of nature hierarchized according to historical-geographical specificities, and patterns of race, gender, and class. Here I think for example about the categories of Arabised North Africa (e.g. the Maghreb) vs the rest of “Black” Africa or the category of “illegal” migrant vs “legal” migrant, which are solidified through the security “deals” struck between core, semi-periphery states and periphery states.
In addition to its introduction and conclusions, this article has three sections. The first section establishes the main features of Moore’s World-Ecology perspective that will be developed throughout the article. In the second section, the article isolates four broad reasons that help us understand how and why agreements between core, semi-periphery and periphery countries can accelerate the decline of the ecological surplus and presents the main argument around which the article revolves: while in the past, appropriation practices combined with the global market and technological innovations ensured rapid global expansions, based on the identification, codification, and rationalization of the Cheap Natures, notably through the practices of colonisation and slavery,today this “advantage” is no longer available. Moreover, the identification, appropriation and mobilization of uncapitalised nature must undergo long, tedious, and above all expensive core-periphery negotiations, which ultimately take the form of agreement packages that include measures in the field of trade, migration, security, and employment. The third section further develops this argument by applying it to the concrete case of the African periphery countries. In the concluding remarks, the article highlights the dual characters of the core, semi-periphery and periphery state agreements and reflects on the nature of the ongoing crisis.
The core-periphery agreements analysed in this article are certainly a display of capitalism’s adaptive power, yet at the same time core-(semi)periphery negotiations accelerate the crisis of modernity-in-nature by exhausting the Cheap Nature, making everything less cheap, and at fast speed, as evidenced by the last commodity supercycle and the one on the horizon. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the fragilities of the global capitalist economy and woken up post-capitalist imaginaries. However, as of today it is an open question as to whether we are facing a developmental crisis of capitalism, which can be solved within the boundaries of the neoliberal order through new rounds of accumulation and commodification, or we are witnessing instead the beginning of an epochal crisis marked by an irreversible decline of capitalism’s capacity to restructure itself as the mode of organisation of human and extra-human nature.
Keywords
Four Cheaps; capitalism; agreements; core-periphery; crisis; super-cycle; Africa.
The research findings show that most stories used human interest frames and foregrounded migrant experiences. The migrants’ main contributions to the stories were to provide a human face to hardships and suffering. Meanwhile, NGOs were included to provide facts, statements of general causes of migrations, statistics, and a sense of scale. Government statements were used to provide a comment on policies and solutions. Most articles were supportive in their sentiments to the plight of
migrants.
Participants in the focus groups (especially migrants themselves) recognised that migrant voices were missing from mainstream media reporting on migration, that reporting on migration tends to be negative, and that there are pressing issues relating to migration that need to be discussed in the public sphere.
Focus group participants generally responded with empathy and understanding in response to stories about the hardships migrants face. Some stories provoked a distancing or disruption to understanding, especially when an aspect of the story did not match their prior tacit or cultural knowledge about migration. A small number of stories deeply moved focus group participants.
The report unpacks how an emphasis on ‘voice’ in this context can inadvertently lead to an under-interrogation of systemic and structural issues by individualising, and in some cases, perpetuating a representation of migrants as helpless victims.
The best practices identified from the programme include:
• Use existing resources to help identify sensitive terminology for reporting about migration
• Respect audiences as knowledgeable and discerning.
• Avoid thinking in dichotomies (especially ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ stories). Instead, work towards nuances when exploring stories.
• Be aware of the consequences of individualising migrant voices and ignoring systemic and structural factors.
• Unpack the local context as much and as accurately as possible.
• Use accessible, sharable and in-depth media forms that people trust.
• Continue supporting local journalists to write informed stories about migration.
In this paper, we will analyse both vectors past/present and solidarities/tensions through a multi-level perspective, which is concretized in two layers: inter-state solidarities (macro level) and intra-state solidarities (meso level). We want to complement Harari’s vision by delving into an attitudinal analysis of States, collectives and individuals, the very same actors who will cope with the changes exceptionally outlined by Harari. These two levels will be complemented in the conclusions with a third one: micro-level, that is the individual sphere, identified as the actual crossroad of this coronavirus crisis.
Per contro, meno attenzione ha ricevuto ad oggi lo studio di queste pratiche di ibridazione del linguaggio adottate all’interno del contesto familiare da parte di membri della stessa generazione e membri di differente generazione. Ciò pare ancora più rilevante nel caso italiano, dove l’analisi di tali pratiche pare particolarmente carente. Presentando le pratiche di ibridazione del linguaggio dei membri delle prime e seconde generazioni e degli individui di generazione 1.5 di origine marocchina residenti in Italia, tale contributo si propone di mettere in luce quali forme di ibridazione del linguaggio inter-generazionale ed intra-generazionale vengono prodotte e ri-prodotte all’interno della comunità marocchina in Italia, tenendo in conto i differenti livelli di competenza linguistica dell’italiano e arabo, e quali funzioni svolgono all’interno del contesto familiare.
La divisione in tre parti si riflette nella struttura di questo capitolo. Inizialmente si descrive l’evoluzione storica del fenomeno in ambito italiano, concentrandosi principalmente sulle comunità di origine migrante più importanti in questo contesto: i lavoratori ambulanti di origine marocchina e di origine senegalese. Nel paragrafo successivo si riflette sul tipo di linguaggio usato nel riferirsi ai lavoratori migranti ambulanti nel contesto italiano. In questo ambito, il linguaggio ha ricoperto e continua a ricoprire un ruolo centrale nell’agevolare la criminalizzazione e vulnerabilizzazione dei lavoratori migranti ambulanti. In questo paragrafo centrale del capitolo si sostiene come, per esempio, le etichette di vu’ cumprà, marocchino, o negro usate nel linguaggio corrente, ed adottate in diverse occasioni da membri di rilievo della classe politica italiana, facilitano la riproduzione di un discorso denigrante ed inferiorizzante nei confronti dei lavoratori migranti ambulanti che oscilla tra posture criminalizzanti e paternalistiche (si veda il capitolo di Yoan Molinero in questo volume). In secondo luogo, l’imprecisione del linguaggio usato per parlare dei lavoratori ambulanti stranieri consente di creare, mantenere e attivare associazioni tra lavoratori migranti ambulanti e criminalità, tra ambulanti e immigrazione illegale, tra ambulanti e integralismo religioso. A seconda della necessità, l’imprecisione del linguaggio permette in un secondo momento di ri-attivare opportunamente alcune di queste associazioni. Nel paragrafo finale si presentano riflessioni sulle future direttrici di ricerca del lavoro ambulante di origine migrante. Si auspica la produzione di un “sapere” in cui i lavoratori migranti ambulanti sono pienamente inclusi nel processo di ricerca in qualità di soggetti piuttosto che come “oggetto” passivo di studio, ritirandosi con decisione dal paradigma della ricerca sui lavoratori migranti ambulanti a favore di una ricerca sociale con i lavoratori migranti ambulanti, che sia capace di dar voce alle complessità e differenti realtà esistenti.