Nicholas P. De Genova brings up many interesting points in his review Migrant “Illegality” and Deportability in Everyday Life that described his views on what “illegality” is and why it exists. Throughout the essay, De Genova reiterated that “illegality” is a forced construct created to socialize and racialize a certain cohort of individuals into a form of malleable, cheap labor.

One of the underlying themes to this essay was that migration is innately tied to the labor market. De Genova explained that federal organizations that seemingly exist to “keep the undocumented out” are actually a front to allow organizations to utilize the “temporary” and cheap labor that comes from the migrants. The concept of “illegality” exists merely to keep this population of migrants invisible and vulnerable to the profiteering of the receiving-state employers, and the fear of deportability is the policer for the migrants. By placing migrants into a separate, socialized and racialized field, by describing them as “aliens”, other humans, “citizens”, can rationalize and distance themselves from the idea that the commodification of migrant labor is not reminiscent of previous eras of forced and manipulated labor systems.

I thought it was interesting that the employment system maintains loopholes that enable corporations to hire illegal workers. De Genova explained that there is no verification process of employment documents, they simply must be submitted. This inadvertently allows employers to turn a blind eye towards the residency status of their employers. This loophole could be used positively – if the migrant workers were paid fair, equivalent wages to that of their “legal” counterparts, but unfortunately in the capitalistic-driven society we live in, this ideal is merely an ideal.