Paper short abstract:

This presentation explores the recent rise of xenophobic sentiment by urban Panamanians towards Colombian and Venezuelan nationals. It argues that Panama's neoliberal regime impels new forms of cultural racism and reorders racial hierarchies within the nation-state.

Paper long abstract:

In 2009, former right-wing president Ricardo Martinelli advanced Panama's global market integration through an 'open door' immigration pledge, inciting regular waves of populist anti-immigration protest throughout Panama City. Based on their everyday experiences with newly arrived Colombian and Venezuelan migrants, Panamanians have begun to piece together 'bricolages of critique' (Kalb 2009) against them in response to growing dispossession and loss of racial privilege within the nation (Hage 2012). At the same time, Panamanians themselves have been attributed with negative cultural traits by foreign employers, the Panamanian Government, and the general public, under structural conditions that set new norms and standards of 'ideal worker citizens'. Neoliberal states premised on ethics of competitiveness and economic potential ultimately therefore place 'downward pressure' upon mostly working class citizens in their attempts to capitalise on global capital flows and service the global proletariat. This paper examines the ways in which shifting neoliberal states fundamentally promulgate shifting and uncertain racial terrains.