Long abstract:

The economic integration of European Union countries aims to assure that goods and services can be moved across geo-political borders without hindrance. These are desirable movements that lead to economic growth. When considering people who move those goods - labour migrants - the integration discussion becomes less unhindered. While labour migrants, and in particular those who perform manual labour, are moved across geo-political borders to contribute to the growing economies of host countries, they are often not seen to be risky as long as they are restrained within the economic boundaries of their workplace (they exist outside of local communities). At the same time, literature reflecting the care continuity for labour migrants has drawn attention to the infrastructural and immobile character of this care. When people cross the boundaries from being international labour migrants to migrant patients in need of care, their bodies shift from being economic assets to being multispecies strangers – potential carriers of infections. In his reflection on the making of strangers in the postmodern world, Bauman highlighted that it is “their tendency to befog and eclipse boundary lines which ought to be clearly seen” that turn individuals into strangers. In this paper, I reflect upon the making of such strangers in the multispecies world;, locating the discussion on labour migration, market integration and care within the STS literature on multispecies coexistence.