On the Work of Urbanization: Migration, Construction Labor, and the Commodity Moment

Construction labor markets are crucial to processes of urbanization, yet they have been largely overlooked as sites for research and theory at the nexus of urban and migration studies. In this article I explore how widespread trends of flexibility have transformed construction labor markets internationally in recent decades and highlight how these trends intersect with the growing incorporation of temporary migrant labor. Employing research conducted on construction labor markets in the city of Dubai, I offer three interventions on theorizing urbanization through the lens of migrant construction work and employment. These include reconceptualizing urbanization as a process of commodity production; highlighting the building process as a site of intersectional politics; and foregrounding how migrant construction work and employment offers a fruitful lens for comparative urban research seeking to draw new connections about the social relations of urbanization across a host of cities internationally. Drawing on feminist migration and postcolonial urban scholarship, I consider how an engagement with the commodified geographies of migrant construction work offers opportunities to reframe and decenter Marxian theories of urbanization.