New Helots

Robin Cohen is Emeritus Professor of Development Studies at the University of Oxford. For the first decade of his academic career, he worked on comparative labour issues. His books included Labour and Politics in Nigeria (1974) and the co-edited collections The development of an African working class (1975), International Labour and the Third World (1987), African Labor History (1978) and the current title, Peasants and Proletarians. He subsequently wrote on the themes of migration, globalization and diasporas. His best-known work is Global diasporas: An introduction (3rd edition, 2022).

• 1. Unfree Labourers and Modern Migrants 2. Theories of Migration: The US and its Labour Reservoirs 3. The Reproduction of Labour-Power: Southern Africa 4. The Functions of Migrant Labour: Europe 5. Policing the Frontiers: Regulating the Supplies of Migrant Labour 6. Habituation and Resistance: The Experience of Migrant Workers 7. The ‘New’ International Division of Labour: Plus ça change

Reviews of the original edition of The New Helots:‘…a dramatic and esciting work, linking together an extraordinary wide range of themes…It opens up a vast array of opportunities for further work to refine and discipline the insights with well-grounded empirical tests and demonstrations.’ Nigel Harris, New Society.‘A wonderfully stimulating and synoptic new book ... Cohen’s analysis raises with a rare degree of clarity the conceptual problem of distinguishing “voluntary” and “involuntary” population movements. ... a formidable piece of comparative sociology and history.’ – Jeff Crisp Journal of Refugee Studies, 1 (1) 1988.‘[The book] provides a refreshing antidote both to the productionist determinism of some neo-Marxist accounts and to the mindless atomism of the neo-classical human capital theory of labor migration. Cohen shows how various states differ in their ways of policing their frontiers and controlling migrant labor once it is admitted.’ – Stephen Castles International Labour Relations Review, 42 (1) 1988.‘The book concludes with a well-thought-out critique of the theory of the “new international division of labour”. Through the course of the discussion, Cohen displays an impressive grasp of historical and contemporary patterns of migration within the world economy.’– Vic Satzewich Ethnic and Racial Studies, 11 (1) 1988.