Metropolitics

Multiplied Displacement Under Racial Capitalism: The “Migrant Crisis” in Berlin and New York City

René Kreichauf — 2025-01-31T10:17:52Z

Berlin and New York City, both self-proclaimed “migrant-friendly cities,” have long been destinations for internationally displaced migrants. Yet, as René Kreichauf explains, the façade of “migrant-friendly” belies racialized policies and practices that multiply displacement and dispossession. In New York, the inauguration of Donald Trump, and the mayor's fealty to him in the hopes of a pardon, portends an intensification of the violence that multiple displacement produces.
The 21st century

- Essays / migration, criminalization of migration, migration crisis, migrant workers, migrants, Berlin, New York, United States, Germany, asylum, displacement

Cleaning and Care Worker Cooperatives in NYC: Empowerment Through Collectivization of Labor

Nora Komposch — 2020-12-08T06:00:00Z

Worker cooperatives have been shown to reduce precariousness and economic exclusion of marginalized groups. However, while much is known about the worker cooperatives' economic impact on workers' lives, other social effects, such as the empowerment of individuals in their everyday lives, remain less explored. This article contributes to filling this gap by examining the empowerment process of migrant women in their everyday lives after joining a cleaning or care worker cooperative in New York

- From the Field / community organizing, women, migrant workers, work, worker cooperatives, United States, New York, empowerment, precarity

The Massive Death of China's Urban Villages

Stefan Al — 2015-03-17T14:42:46Z

As expanding Chinese cities engulfed their hinterlands, chengzhoncun—villages within the city—became an affordable residential choice for migrants seeking jobs in burgeoning commercial and industrial centers, especially in the southeast of the country. Dense, chaotic and crowded, they are well-located and well-priced entry points for the workers at the heart of China's astounding growth. Now they are being torn down. Stefan Al argues that this leaves most of their former residents with a bleak

- From the Field / urban planning, urbanization, China, demolition, migrant workers, urban villages, Chinese urban planning

Mass-Producing the World's Factory

Stefan Al — 2015-02-09T05:50:00Z

The economic transformation of China into a global manufacturing mecca has emptied many rural areas, creating tens of thousands of migrant workers who float between their hometowns and the giant city-regions, where factory workers are in high demand. Stefan Al explores the architectural and town-planning aspects of this seismic shift, documenting factories, dormitories, “urban villages” and the lives of the individuals who populate them.
In 2008, when a British man discovered photos of what

- From the Field / China, migration, workers, factory towns, global supply chain, migrant workers