The Political Dynamics of a Segmented Labour Market

Abstract

This is a study of the dynamics of the segmented labour market in Israel over the past five decades dynamics characterized by the successive incorporation into the secondary labour market of different subordinate populations with distinct political status and under varying political and economic circumstances: Palestinian citizens of Israel during the first two decades of statehood, Palestinian non-citizens under occupation after the 1967 war, and migrant workers over the past decade. The analysis focuses on the main actors involved in the production and reproduction of the segmented labour market, their specific political and economic interests, and the changing institutional mechanisms employed by the state to constitute these populations as cheap and unprotected labour. The analysis shows that beyond the state's and employers' interests directly related to the functioning of the labour market, the varying conditions in the national conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and the changing strategies employed by the Israeli state to manage this conflict have fundamentally affected the dynamics of the segmented labour market. The study sheds light on the complex interplay between political and economic forces in the constitution of subordinate populations as cheap and unprotected labour, showing that fluid political settings related to state-building processes and the state's autonomous interests deriving from these processes, as well as the distinct political status of different subordinate populations, are factors as important as the employers' demand for cheap labour.