Indigenous labour/colonial labour

Indigenous (or colonial) labour generically refers to the labour regime to which non-European workers are subjected within colonial territories and also in the metropolis, and its numerous variants: wage labour, forced labour, compulsory services and requisitions, labour organised within the context of wartime mobilisation, contract labour, etc. This phenomenon highlights the importance of the importation and circulation of coloniality, that is, the set of principles, practices and knowledge that govern relations of otherness within European empires and which contribute to structuring, in a lasting way, the perception of postcolonial migrant workers.