[Introduction] The making and unmaking of precarious, ideal subjects – migration brokerage in the Global South

The migration literature is often underpinned by the idea that migrants are either completely ‘free’ agents, individually choosing how best to achieve returns on their human capital and resources (Sjaastad 1962) or ‘agents of development’ for their home countries and regions (Turner and Kleist 2013). Conversely they are viewed as exploited slaves, being pushed into low-paid occupations and controlled by middlemen and employers. Unsurprisingly, in many close-knit societies a process as expensive and life-defining as migration is rarely undertaken as an individual act and is shaped by complex social interactions within kinship networks and beyond (Lindquist 2012). Brokerage is ever-present in migrant labour markets around the world, variously interpreted as occupying the ‘middle space’ between migrants and the state, helping migrants navigate complex immigration regimes (Lindquist, Xiang, and Yeoh 2012; McKeown 2012; Schapendonk 2017), acting as an extension of the state seeking to outsource border controls (Goh, Wee, and Yeoh 2017) and colluding with employers to cheapen and commoditise migrant labour (Guérin 2013; McCollum and Findlay 2018). It is increasingly recognised that an understanding of contemporary migration is not complete without an understanding of the mediating practices that facilitate and constrain it (Coe and Jordhus-Lier 2011; Cranston, Schapendonk, and Spaan 2018). This special issue investigates the role that migration brokers play in the subjectivation and precarisation of migrant men and women from marginalised classes and ethnicities in the Global South. It shows how these processes are critical for them to become a part of contemporary economic and political systems of international and internal labour circulation. It responds to the call of labour geographers for a deeper understanding of the ways in which diverse economic and social contexts result in complex forms of precarity (McDowell 2015) and adds to the evidence on the role of actors beyond the workplace in co-creating precarity (Buckley, McPhee, and Rogaly 2017)

Measurement of J/ψ→γηcJ/\psi\to\gamma\eta_{\rm c} decay rate and ηc\eta_{\rm c} parameters at KEDR

Using the inclusive photon spectrum based on a data sample collected at the $J/\psi$ peak with the KEDR detector at the VEPP-4M $e^+e^-$ collider, we measured the rate of the radiative decay $J/\psi\to\gamma\eta_{\rm c}$ as well as $\eta_{\rm c}$ mass and width. Taking into account an asymmetric photon lineshape we obtained $\Gamma^0_{\gamma\eta_{\rm c}}=2.98\pm0.18 \phantom{|}^{+0.15}_{-0.33}$ keV, $M_{\eta_{\rm c}} = 2983.5 \pm 1.4 \phantom{|}^{+1.6}_{-3.6}$ MeV/$c^2$, $\Gamma_{\eta_{\rm c}} = 27.2 \pm 3.1 \phantom{|}^{+5.4}_{-2.6}$ MeV.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Be our guest/worker: reciprocal dependency and expressions of hospitality in Ni-Vanuatu overseas labour migration

Whilst there has been renewed interest in the development potential of temporary migration programmes, such schemes have long been criticized for creating conditions for exploitation and fostering dependence. In this article, which is based on a case study of Ni-Vanuatu seasonal workers employed in New Zealand’s horticultural industry, I show how workers and employers alike actively cultivate and maintain relations of reciprocal dependence and often describe their relation in familial terms of kinship and hospitality. Nevertheless, workers often feel estranged both in the Marxian sense of being subordinated to a regime of time-discipline, and in the intersubjective sense of feeling disrespected or treated unkindly. I show how attention to the ‘non-contractual element’ in the work contract, including expressions of hospitality, can contribute to anthropological debates surrounding work, migration, and dependence, and to interdisciplinary understandings of the justice of labour migration.ESRC scholarship (project reference ES/H034943/1

Precise measurement of RudsR_{\text{uds}} and RR between 1.84 and 3.72 GeV at the KEDR detector

The present work continues a series of the KEDR measurements of the $R$ value that started in 2010 at the VEPP-4M $e^+e^-$ collider. By combining new data with our previous results in this energy range we measured the values of $R_{\text{uds}}$ and $R$ at nine center-of-mass energies between 3.08 and 3.72 GeV. The total accuracy is about or better than $2.6\%$ at most of energy points with a systematic uncertainty of about $1.9\%$. Together with the previous precise $R$ measurement at KEDR in the energy range 1.84-3.05 GeV, it constitutes the most detailed high-precision $R$ measurement near the charmonium production threshold.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1610.02827 and substantial text overlap with arXiv:1510.0266

Measurement of B(J/psi->eta_c gamma) at KEDR

We present a study of the inclusive photon spectrum from 6.3 million J/psi decays collected with the KEDR detector at the VEPP-4M e+e- collider. We measure the branching fraction of the radiative decay J/psi -> eta_c gamma, eta_c width and mass. Taking into account an asymmetric photon line shape we obtain: M(eta_c) = (2978.1 +- 1.4 +- 2.0) MeV/c^2, Gamma(eta_c) = (43.5 +- 5.4 +- 15.8) MeV, B(J/psi->eta_c gamma) = (2.59 +- 0.16 +- 0.31)%$.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure. To be published in the proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Charm Physics (Charm2010), October 21-24, 2010, IHEP, Beijin