by Giovanni Di Lieto
Abstract
Historically, the concept of labour started as an objective basis of value and evolved into a notion
of subjective economic utility. This article proposes an open-border labour process to be initiated in
connection with the broader trade liberalisation trend. This would thoroughly restructure the current
concept of labour as a mere immobile input into the production of goods and services. In the proposed
model of borderless industrial denizenship, labour movement would eventually be freed from the
nation-state border constraints that undermine the enforcement of labour and other related human
rights standards. A causal layered analysis maps the theoretical framework shift from a hard-bordered
model of labour migration to a soft-bordered one.