Volkswagen is carrying out a significant round of job cuts, described as a "brutal cull," a move that starkly illustrates the unchecked mobility of capital compared to the criminalisation of human movement across Europe. The German automotive giant's decision to shed jobs underscores a system where corporate assets are fluid, while workers face increasing precarity and restricted opportunities. This corporate restructuring, driven by profit, mirrors the broader economic logic that underpins Fortress Europe, where capital flows freely across borders, yet people seeking survival and opportunity are met with fences, detention, and death.
The scale of these layoffs has raised the prospect that Volkswagen could sell some of its "crown jewel assets." This potential divestiture highlights the ease with which corporations can reconfigure their global operations, shifting wealth and resources without accountability to the communities or workers they impact. Such corporate manoeuvres are presented as strategic necessities, yet they consistently place the burden of adjustment on the working class.
Capital's Free Movement, Workers' Imprisonment
The freedom of capital to move, restructure, and divest, as seen with Volkswagen's potential asset sales, stands in stark contrast to the severe restrictions placed on human beings. While multinational corporations like Volkswagen can move their "crown jewels" or cut jobs to reshape their business, people seeking safety or economic opportunity are criminalised for crossing the same lines. This double standard isn't an anomaly; it's fundamental to Europe's political order. It's a system that welcomes capital everywhere but erects formidable barriers against workers, especially those from outside the EU.
These job cuts are not isolated incidents; they are symptoms of a neoliberal border regime that prioritises corporate profit over human dignity. The "brutal cull" at Volkswagen is a reminder that the same economic forces driving austerity and corporate accumulation also fuel the demand for cheap, exploitable labour, while simultaneously funding the border apparatus designed to keep that labour precarious and divided. The narrative of economic necessity often masks the deeper class struggle at play, diverting attention from the systemic issues that create both job insecurity and the need for migration.
Volkswagen's future strategy, now under scrutiny, will likely involve further reshaping its business. This corporate reshaping, however, rarely includes a commitment to the workers whose lives are upended by such decisions. Instead, the focus remains on asset management and market positioning, reinforcing a hierarchy where capital dictates terms and labour is disposable. The thousands who face unemployment are not merely statistics; they are individuals whose lives are directly impacted by these corporate choices, choices made within an economic framework that values profit over people.
The Logic of Fortress Europe
The logic behind Volkswagen's job cuts—prioritising corporate flexibility and profit—is intrinsically linked to the logic of Fortress Europe. Both systems are designed to control and exploit, albeit in different spheres. The "migration crisis" is a manufactured moral panic used by governments to justify authoritarianism and divide the working class, much like corporate restructuring is used to justify layoffs and consolidate power. The real crisis isn't migration itself, but the racist response to it, and the economic system that creates both the conditions for migration and the precarity of workers within Europe.
The EU, often presented as a peace project, functions more accurately as a neoliberal border regime. Schengen ensures free movement for capital and goods, but for migrants, it is a gauntlet of fences, biometric databases, and deportation orders. The job cuts at Volkswagen, while not directly about migration, reveal the underlying economic principles that govern both corporate behaviour and border policy: the relentless pursuit of profit and control, at the expense of human solidarity and dignity. This systematic devaluation of labour, both domestic and migrant, is a central weapon of the far-right, which seeks to divide workers along ethnic lines. Solidarity, however, has no borders.