The Business of Borders

Content

Corporations have played major roles in shaping US immigration laws. Some capitalists, such as weapons makers, surveillance, and private prison companies, profit directly from anti-immigrant policies. Others have a more complex position, needing workers but wanting to limit their rights.

Policies toward immigrants go hand in hand with imperial intervention abroad, with roots in centuries of colonization and displacement. Even as capitalists and governments have insisted on a “strong border,” they have selectively ignored national borders when laying claim to foreign resources, labor, and markets.

Panelists will illuminate the relationship between national borders, capitalist profits, and workers’ well-being while suggesting pathways for worker resistance.