The Degradation of the Labour Market in Southern Italy, Resulting in Precariousness and Exploitation

In the last three decades policies of neoliberalism have influenced the world economy including that of Italy, which has set up an economic pattern based on accumulation by dispossession. This results in value extraction due to the redistribution or expropriation of value that was made by others as often happens when financial accumulation or labour exploitation leads to increased profit maximization. Subsequent consequences are income loss and social inequalities, which affects those who live in already disadvantaged areas. In Southern Italy, where public sector jobs reduced unemployment and increased incomes, neoliberal solutions, following a spending review and the privatisation of public services, created at least three interconnected outcomes: a) a transformative demotion of the labour market as a effect of shadow economy growth resulting in changes in job roles and less job security for workers; b) a permanent growth of the migration of Italian people present statistical data is similar to the time of trente glorieuses; c) a significant increase of socio-spatial polarization, between social classes as well as Northern and Southern Italy. Within this framework, the paper aims to present the results from two different long-term research projects carried out in Messina concerning the precariousness of the job market between 2008-2015, which analysed, using qualitative methodologies such as “in-depth interviews”, the degradation of the labour market in marginal areas. Moreover, it proposes to engage with the on-going debate that in recent years has been introduced by Foundational Economy studies.