Infrastructures and Infrapolitics in Racial Capitalism: Refugees’ Contested Inclusion and Intermediation on a German Labour Market

In the last years the central role of racialisation and racism for capitalist accumulation have become increasingly acknowledged. The heritage of the Black Radical Tradition and its theories on racial capitalism and abolitionism have been taken up and begun to inspire anti-racist activism. This paper seeks to actualize these theoretical traditions based on a concrete empirical context while connecting them to autonomous Marxist perspectives such as the autonomy of migration approach. By examining the conjuncture of racial capitalism in Germany after the 'summer of migration' in 2015, the paper offers a theoretical reading of racial capitalism based on an empirical analysis of political-economic interests, infrastructures, and trends which are relevant for the pursued forms of refusal and resistance such as everyday infrapolitics. Through its empirical analysis of refugees' inclusion and intermediation on the labour market, it connects and reconsiders key concepts associated to theories around racial capitalism such as expropriation and coercion, refusal and fugitivity. Particularly in a recent context shaped by ever more restrictive, repressive, and racist policies towards migrants and refugees as well as attacks on critical humanities such as race and post-colonial studies, it is politically important to point to the continuous processes of racialisation – even during supposedly more ‘welcoming’ and liberal conjunctures – which further predominant racial divisions and discourses. At the same time, the manifold and often overlooked tactics and tools of racialised precarious workers must be emphasized more than ever and considered crucial components of a radical leftist and anti-fascist politics. These trends and transformations are not only relevant for the struggles of racialised workers, but shed light on the conditions and struggles of precarious workers more broadly.