The Invisible Workforce: How Economies Mask Their Reliance on Migrants

Introduction​

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We care about status more than we’d like to admit. From childhood, we’re primed to aim high—pursue prestige, land the titles that command respect: doctor, lawyer, CEO. Nobody aspires to be the invisible force that keeps the lights on, the shelves stocked, and the floors clean. It’s not just about ambition; it’s about avoiding the stigma that comes with low-status work. We’ve built a society that doesn’t just rank jobs by pay but by dignity, attaching respect to some roles while dehumanizing others. Somewhere along the way, we collectively agreed that some jobs were beneath us, too dirty or menial to deserve respect. But unfortunately, our distaste for certain employment does not take away from their indispensability to our economy. We’ve created an entire class of labor we don’t want to see but can’t live without. The result? The jobs that keep our societies running—the ones we’re too proud to do ourselves—get passed down the social hierarchy to migrants we regard as “beneath” us.

 

In the Western political landscape, the so-called ‘migration crisis’ endlessly resurfaces, fueling headlines, election campaigns, and public debates in a repetitive loop. The same rhetoric, the same promises, the same fears. It’s framed as a social burden, a threat to national identity, or a security risk (Ceyhan & Tsoukala, 2002).  Yet beneath this superficial rhetoric lies a less-discussed reality: Western economies are deeply dependent on migrant labor. They very suddenly go from a social issue to convenient fillers for economic necessities. The paradox results in anti-immigration politicians decrying the influx of foreigners at any given opportunity while their economies quietly rely on this very workforce to fill essential roles that native-born citizens refuse to take, sustaining industries that would otherwise collapse (Huddle, 1993). This hypocritical stance exposes a structural contradiction within capitalist labor markets: economies demand the labor they simultaneously seek to exclude. This article will delve into how Western economies justify their anti-immigration stance while remaining deeply reliant on migrant labor. It will examine how capitalist societies reconcile the inherent conflict of the structural inconsistencies in modern labor markets.

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The Art of Constructing the Threat: Securitization of Migration

 

Migration is often framed as a crisis linked to poverty and instability in developing countries reinforcing binaries between “civilized” Western nations and “underdeveloped” others (Ceyhan & Tsoukala, 2002). Securitization theory explains how issues are transformed into security threats through speech acts, justifying extraordinary measures like restrictive immigration policies and border controls. Securitization’s success depends on migration’s portrayal as a fundamental risk, acceptance by a frightened audience, and resonance within the broader context of misinformation and national identity insecurity.

 

However, from an economic perspective, migration is nothing but a strategic response to labor demands in Western societies. As Castles and Miller (2009) highlight, migrants fill essential roles in economies facing declining birth rates, aging populations, or a lack of domestic labor interest. Yet, rather than acknowledging this interdependence, right-wing populists depict migration as a zero-sum threat—one that must be countered with mass deportations and border crackdowns.

 

The Normative Populist Fantasies: Sweeping Migrants Under the Rug

 

As headlines are booming during this week of German regional elections, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is riding a wave of unexpected success, fueled by growing anti-immigrant sentiment. Let’s turn to Germany for some inspiration in populist anti-immigration rhetoric—where the fantasy of mass deportations is being amplified as a political solution (Parker, 2025). Their campaign materials, including mock plane tickets calling for the removal of "illegal immigrants," exemplify indulgence in exclusionary rhetoric. While these tactics have fueled electoral success—securing nearly 33% of the vote in Thuringia—they also expose the deep contradictions at the heart of such policies (Connolly & Smith, 2025).

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Paradoxically, as political forces push for migrant expulsion, Germany simultaneously faces a labor shortage so severe that it requires an estimated 400,000 immigrants annually to sustain its economy (Riham Alkousaa, 2025). Yet, AfD’s rhetoric not only fuels xenophobia but also undermines the very economic structures that depend on migrant labor. This tension reflects a broader truth: the populist dream of a migrant-free nation is not just ethically doubtful but structurally unworkable.

 

Germany’s case serves as a warning. When political fantasy collides with economic necessity, the result is a policy dilemma that cannot be resolved through exclusion alone. Rather than confronting systemic labor market issues, anti-immigration populism offers a hollow promise—one that, if pursued, risks deepening economic instability while further fracturing social cohesion.

 

The removal of the migrant labor force-which is undeniably critical will weaken key industries, inflate food prices, reduce domestic food production, and increase reliance on imports (Pedraza et al., 2025). Deportations also eliminate responsible borrowers who sustain financial institutions through mortgages, loans, and credit card payments. This weakens consumer spending and contributes to broader financial instability. In securitizing migration, political rhetoric ignores these economic realities, promoting policies that will ultimately harm national prosperity rather than protect it.

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The “3D” Jobs—A Racialized Perspective

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Beyond economics, mass deportations reveal deeper racial biases. Migrant workers are systematically funneled into jobs that native-born citizens refuse—the so-called “3D” jobs: Dirty, Dangerous, and Demanding (Genova, 2002). These roles are essential to the economy yet socially devalued. The relegation of migrants to such labor is not simply an economic necessity but also a function of ingrained racial and postcolonial hierarchies.

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Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) helps explain this phenomenon. Native-born citizens, as the dominant ingroup, construct migrants as an inferior outgroup—one that is deemed unworthy of high-status positions but necessary for menial labor. This psychological mechanism sustains racist attitudes that justify the exclusion of foreigners from prestigious career paths while normalizing their exploitation in undesirable industries.

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This dynamic is deeply embedded in postcolonial narratives. As De Genova (2002) argues, Western nations have long framed the Global South as chaotic and dependent, justifying interventionist policies that reinforce Western superiority. This same logic underpins the securitization of migration: migrants are cast as threats rather than contributors, and their presence is tolerated only in subservient roles.

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The Futility of Replacing Migrants with Native Workers

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The notion that native-born workers will seamlessly step into the roles vacated by unwanted migrants is not just misguided; it is a willful denial of structural labor dynamics. These jobs remain unfilled not because they stop existing, but because they are deliberately made undesirable—grueling, low-paid, and precarious by design. Enforcing such policies would force the hand of politicians to increase wages to unsustainable levels they cannot afford or collapse entire industries reliant on cheap labor.

 

Michael Piore (1979) dismantles this myth in Birds of Passage, explaining that migrant labor is not just cheaper but structurally necessary. Migrants fill roles that are systematically undesirable, low-wage, and subject to market fluctuations—conditions that native-born workers reject. The real issue, then, is not job scarcity but a deliberate economic structure that depends on migrant labor while devaluing those who provide it.

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This contradiction—depending on migrant labor while vilifying migrants—exposes the structural hypocrisy of modern labor markets. Beneath the rhetoric of meritocracy and equal opportunity lies a system built on exclusion, exploitation, and racialized economic stratification.

 

Conclusion: Still Dispensable?

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What happens when the invisible workforce disappears? In a world where every migrant worker vanishes overnight, supermarket shelves empty, construction sites lie abandoned, hospitals face critical shortages, and entire industries collapse. The same politicians who built their careers on anti-immigration rhetoric would find themselves in economic freefall, forced to confront an inconvenient truth: the very labor force they vilified was, in fact, the backbone of their prosperity. The fantasy of mass deportations exposes the impossibility of exclusionary policies, revealing that economies built on flexible, low-wage labor cannot function without the very workers they seek to expel.

 

Yet this paradox is not just economic; it is ideological. Societies that claim to champion human rights turn a blind eye to the exploitation of those deemed “other.” Nations that celebrate globalization resist the inevitable movement of people it brings. Capitalist economies demand labor flexibility while denying workers the security and conditions they deserve. These contradictions are not incidental—they are systemic, woven into the fabric of the modern industrial society.

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As expected, racism achieves the same ends: it ensures that the adult hierarchical culture of an advanced technological society continues to exclude migrants from assimilation into the power structure. And as long as we keep electing the same far-right politicians, enacting the same exclusionary policies, and maintaining the same social hierarchies, we are perpetuating the very power structures we claim to despise.

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The question is no longer whether Western nations can function without migration—they cannot. The real question is: how much longer can they maintain the illusion that they can?

 

References

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Connolly, K., & Smith, S. (2025, February 22). A train through Germany: Is Europe’s powerhouse going off the rails? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/22/a-train-through-germany-is-europes-powerhouse-going-off-the-rails

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Pedraza, F. I., et al. (2025, February 18). Deporting millions of immigrants would shock the US economy, increasing housing, food and other prices. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/deporting-millions-of-immigrants-would-shock-the-us-economy-increasing-housing-food-and-other-prices-245342

 

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