This week we’re examining the ways we talk about automation and immigration, and how this discourse shapes the economy.

We ask: How far are discourses around immigration and automation tied to each other? What is the link between this rhetoric and the economic system known as ‘neo-liberalism’? Is the UK unique in our debates about robots and immigrants, and their effect on the labour market?

Rhetoric around immigrants ‘stealing people’s jobs’ has become common in contemporary British politics, especially during the debates around the 2016 Brexit referendum. Meanwhile, rising automation has spurred discussion of how many jobs will be taken over by the ‘robots’. The ways we talk about these two threats of job losses can be strikingly similar and both pose questions about how the labour market will be structured in the future.

A new book examining these discourses and their role in British economic and political debate, called Robots and Immigrants: Who Is Stealing Jobs?, was published last month by Bristol University Press. It’s by Dr Kostas Maronitis, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Leeds Trinity University, and Dr Denny Pencheva, Lecturer in European Politics and Public Policy at UCL.

Mentioned in this episode: Maronitis, K., & Pencheva, D. (2022). Robots and Immigrants: Who is stealing jobs? Bristol University Press.

For more information and to access the transcript: https://ucl-uncovering-politics.simplecast.com/episodes/robots-and-immigrants/transcript

Date of episode recording: 2022-10-20

Duration: 00:41:00

Language of episode: English

Presenter: Dr Emily McTernan

Guests: Dr Kostas Maronitis; Dr Denny Pencheva

Producer: Eleanor Kingwell-Banham