Labour Migration, Occupational Segregation, and Equality

Labour migration from low- to high-income states displays striking patterns of occupational segregation. Occupational segregation in labour migration generates what I call the distributive–relational dilemma: on the one hand, labour migration can promote global distributive equality; on the other hand, labour migration can create or exacerbate relational inequalities within the receiving society. This conflict between distributive and relational equality can be attenuated to some degree, but it is difficult to eliminate entirely. Faced with the distributive–relational dilemma, relational egalitarians might conclude that they should support immigration restrictions to reduce domestic relational inequalities. In this paper, I argue that relational egalitarians should resist this conclusion. First, I argue that restricting immigration to protect domestic relational equality fails as a justification for exclusion, because it involves members of receiving societies treating their own hostility towards immigrant workers as a reason for their exclusion. Second, I argue that excluding would-be immigrants in order to maintain domestic relational equality reproduces inegalitarian social hierarchies at the global level, because it reinforces a global regime of migration governance that expresses racialised inequalities in social status. These arguments suggest that relational egalitarians have the theoretical resources that they need to resist the conclusion that they should support restrictive immigration policies in response to the distributive–relational dilemma.