Mouna Maaroufi

Der Artikel beschäftigt sich mit Veränderungen in der Vermittlung und Verhandlung von Arbeit seit dem Sommer der Migration 2015. Am Beispiel von Berlin und Potsdam werden die zunehmende Vielfalt und Verknüpftheit von Vermittlungsakteur*innen wie Arbeitsagenturen, Job Center, Bildungs-und Beratungsträgern und Leiharbeitsfirmen aufgezeigt. Diese Akteur*innen werden in Form von Infrastrukturen dargestellt, die zwischen staatlichen, privatwirtschaftlichen und zivilgesellschaftlichen Interessen vernetzen und vermitteln. In ihren Funktionen der Extraktion von Informationen, der Aktivierung und Disziplinierung von Arbeitssuchenden, der (Im-)Mobilisierung von Arbeitskräften und der Bewertung oder Abwertung von Fähigkeiten hat ihre Intervention Auswirkungen auf die Konkretisierung von lokalen Arbeitsteilungen und Arbeitsbedingungen. Auf diese Transformationen reagieren Geflüchtete mit Infrapolitiken, durch die sie versuchen, sich in den Infrastrukturen des Ankommens und der Arbeitsmarktteilhabe im städtischen Raum Autonomie zu erstreiten. Insofern werden Infrastrukturen der Arbeitsvermittlung auf viele unscheinbare Weisen von Arbeitenden und Arbeitsuchenden verweigert oder angeeignet, wodurch Verhandlungs-und Mobilitätsmacht auf dem Arbeitsmarkt gestärkt werden kann. So argumentiere ich, dass vermittelnde Infrastrukturen von Arbeit räumlich sowie politisch zu wichtigen Orten der Begegnung, des Austauschs und der Aushandlung werden und somit als Commons des Ankommens dienen können.

The article deals with changes in the mediation and negotiation of work since the summer of migration 2015. Based on the examples of Berlin and Potsdam, the increasing diver-sity and connections of labor market intermediaries such as employment agencies, job centers, education and counseling institutions, and temporary employment agencies are shown. These actors are presented in the form of infrastructures that network and mediate between state, private-sector and civil-society interests. In their functions of extracting information, activating and disciplining job seekers, (im-)mobilizing labor forces, and valuing or devaluing capacities, their intervention has implications for the concretization of local divisions of labor and working conditions. Refugees respond to these transformations with infrapolitics through which they attempt to gain autonomy in the infrastructures of arrival and labor mediation in urban spaces. In this respect, infra-structures of labor market participation are refused or appropriated in many imperceptible ways by workers and job seekers, which can enhance bargaining and mobility power in the labor market. Thus, I argue that mediating infrastructures of work spatially as well as politically become important sites of encounter, exchange, and negotiation, and thus can serve as commons of arrival.

The article retraces the institutional, legal, and societal developments that have accompanied the increasing interlocking of asylum and workfare policies in Germany since the ‘summer of migration’ in 2015. By analyzing the infrastructures, narratives, but also conflicts and contingencies that underlie politics for labor market activation as they are experienced by refugees in Berlin and Brandenburg, ongoing social and institutional struggles around them are illustrated. The article argues that differential and contingent access to workfare measures corresponds to attempts to selectively and logistically activate potential workers for precarious segments and sectors. Infrastructures involved in such differential and confining activation are examined as to the racializing and coercive effects that they have on labor market participation through their unequal distribution of resources and precarities. It is argued that through their logistified approach, current conjunctures of racial capitalism contribute to forging more and more precarious, stratified, and fragmented social rights and labor relations. In spite of these contingent and divisive tendencies in racial capitalism, manifold struggles against racism and in favor of equal labor market participation continue to be fought.

Mouna Maaroufi richtet in ihrem Beitrag den Blick auf die Infrastrukturen der Arbeitsmarktintegration für Geflüchtete und zeigt darin eingelagerte Differenzierungslogiken entlang wirtschaftlicher Kriterien auf. Im Sinne einer logistifizierten Verwertung migrantischer Arbeitskraft kanalisieren Programme die Arbeitskraft von Geflüchteten primär auf sogenannte "Mangelberufe", was aus Sicht der Geflüchteten meistens als Abwertung vorhandener Wissens- und Kompetenzbestände erfahren wird. Maaroufi sieht die Perspektive der Migration als konstitutiv für die Umsetzung von Arbeitsmarktpolitiken an. Durch alltägliche Kämpfe der Migrant*innen wird die alltägliche Praxis der "Integrationspolitiken" ausgehandelt und es zeigen sich auch Formen der Verweigerung gegenüber einer kapitalistischen und rassistischen Regulation von Arbeit und Bildung.

For long, refugee rights activists in Germany have criticized refugees’ limited access to work. Recently, the German state has re-orientated its refugee policies however, by starting to emphasize refugees’ role as potential labour market participants. Since 2014, reforms have opened the labour market and eased refugees’ labour market access by reforming laws and establishing innovative mechanisms for qualification and labour market integration. Considering the role migration policies play for labour regulation in the context of neoliberal globalization, it seems reasonable to assume that this shift is not merely driven by humanitarian concerns, but points to an increasingly utilitarian approach to refugee policies. By applying concepts from the political economy of labour, such as activation and flexibilization, on policies towards refugees in Germany, I aim at providing an analysis that considers refugee policies an integral and dynamic part of transformations of labour markets in the transition to post-fordism. For this purpose, the legal and institutional reforms undertaken for the labour market integration of refugees, and particularly the draft for an integration law, will be analysed critically. Moreover, the paper will draw connections between refugee policies and previous labour market reforms in Germany, such as the Hartz IV reforms, which aimed at increasingly activating and disciplining the workforce. This way, the paper will explore to what extent the state’s recent approach to refugees’ labour market participation represent a continuity with the process of neoliberalisation of the German labour market. Consequently, refugee policies presented as chance for quicker and better integration could rather respond to and contribute to a further flexibilization and segmentation of the labour market.

The often praised temporary humanitarian admission programme through which Germany will grant a two year residence permit to 20.000 Syrian refugees from Syria, its neighbouring countries and Egypt and Libya determines the admission of Syrians based on several criteria such as ties to Germany, vulnerability and useful skills for the reconstruction of Syria. These criteria and the temporary character of the programme allow the German state to select refugees carefully according to their means of accommodation in Germany, their professional skills and to minimize its legal and economic responsibilities for the admitted refugees. Though some aspects of the programme facilitate the application process and economic integration of refugees and encourage a more flexible approach taking into account transnational ties and mobile solutions, it has to be seen critically for enabling tendencies in the global refugee regime which could lead to a reduction of assumed responsibility of Northern states and to more inequality among states and refugees.