Book Review: Neoliberal Citizenship. Sacred Markets,Sacrificial Lives by Luca Mavelli

After the 2008 global financial crisis, leading scholars claimed that Western countries had hitherto believed in a sort of ‘theological free-market ideology’ (Eric Hobsbawm) and ‘market fundamentalism’ deprived of factual evidence (Joseph Stiglitz). Despite being insightful, these provocative assumptions have not been as carefully researched and problematized as done by Luca Mavelli in his last book, Neoliberal Citizenship. Sacred Markets, Sacrificial Lives. This monograph strongly contributes to debates in critical international political economy, migration, critical border studies and security studies. It proposes a powerful critique of neoliberalism by arguing that neoliberalism has modified citizenship regimes by subordinating the possibility of inclusion and protection to rationalities of value (Mavelli 2022: 2–3).

This compelling argument is explored by looking at four major recent crises (the Eurozone crisis in 2009, the refugee crisis in 2015, Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic), which, Mavelli argues, have all been governed through a neoliberal logic. Hence, a profound transformation of citizenship practices has followed suit. Regardless of formal citizenship status, the market decides who deserves to live (i.e. migrants deemed useful for the EU labour market, ultra-rich foreigners) and who needs to be excluded (i.e. undocumented migrants, debased citizens of austerity or elderly people in care homes during the first COVID-19 wave) according to individuals’ potential value. This biopolitical process has been facilitated by a totalizing process of economization ¹ of every single aspect of human lives, which has led to a sanctification of the market, treated as a sacred entity whose complex mechanisms should not be questioned but faithfully accepted, as posited by neoliberal forefather Friedrich (Mavelli 2022:177).

One of the book’s key moves is the articulation of a comprehensive logic of value that transcends pure material calculus. Mavelli (2022: 54) highlights that citizenship has been subjected to economic calculations and treated as a commodity. Evident examples come from Malta – whose Citizenship Act (2013) allows to purchase Maltese citizenship for a €650,000 fee – as well as from some mechanisms of ‘citizenship-by-investment’ (in the EU) and ‘residency-by-investment’ (in the United Kingdom). These schemes follow a material logic of value, in which ultra-rich foreigners are endowed with rights that are sometimes denied to poor local citizens (i.e. bringing a foreign spouse to the country). Thus, the nominal fact of being a citizen does not imply automatic ‘rights to have rights’, because these are functions of the market value of individuals (Mavelli 2022: 33, 62).

Yet, an exclusive focus on material value does not explain why some Western states have decided to accept migrants deemed ‘burdensome’ for the welfare states during the refugee crisis of 2015. To grasp this dynamic, Mavelli suggests examining a second logic of capital, which rests on emotional value. In this respect, states might decide to ‘invest’ in migrants deemed vulnerable (women, children, people with mental and physical disabilities) and take them in because they ‘boost the pride, moral worth, and sense of self-esteem of the country’ (Mavelli 2022: 7). These policies are premised on the assumption that ‘good refugees’ are not only those who are worthy from a monetary perspective but also those who provide significant ‘human capital’ because their care is a biopolitical way of caring for the host population and its emotional wellbeing. It is important to remember that emotional value is not a prerogative of vulnerable folks, since ‘exceptional’ non-vulnerable ones can be rewarded with citizenship too when they become ‘protagonists of commendable actions’ that enrich the immaterial value of the country. ²

These seemingly humanitarian policies are inscribed in a neoliberal biopolitical economy that is also deeply racist, as it considers traditional ethnic and religious categories (i.e. white and Christians) as better refugees than Muslims and BAME folks, treated instead as security threats. The emphasis on emotional value widens the current understanding of economization as theorized by scholarship on neoliberalism and demonstrates that different forms of material and emotional capital sometimes clash. Wealthy foreigners might be prioritized over destitute local citizens (e.g. through special fiscal regimes not available to ordinary citizens). Nonetheless, the opposite has happened too, as evidenced by the Brexiters’ hostility against 3 million EU citizens who indeed created a positive economic impact on the British economy (Mavelli 2022: 37). The potential conflict between material and emotional values represents one of the most original contributions of the book, calling for further research to identify in which conditions the emotional dimension of value trumps monetary calculations.

Another important argument stresses that the intrinsic biopolitical character of neoliberal citizenship rests on organizing the market around the institution of ‘scarcity’, which is socially instituted rather than naturally given – as dramatically shown by the lack of sufficient public healthcare infrastructure in the COVID-19 pandemic. In the name of scarce resources, ‘surplus populations’ must be sacrificed to preserve the market order (Mavelli 2022: 21, 175). The class implications of this Malthusian reasoning are tremendous. Mavelli describes how Western societies are marked by growing polarization between rich and poor and the ‘proletarianization’ of lower classes, that swallow up a larger number of nominal citizens and non-citizens who are pushed into poverty (Mavelli 2022: 26). This group is ultimately doomed to compete for limited material, moral and ideological resources, in a ‘race-to-the-bottom’ game that rewards the most resilient folks. Instead of blaming the market – a ‘mystique’ and complex entity which cannot be questioned (pp. 39, 177–189) – debased Western citizens scapegoat migrants. Xenophobia, however, is not grounded in ethnic, cultural or religious differences, as claimed by some scholars of right-wing populism. Instead, Mavelli (2022: 194) argues, in the ‘fear of sameness’ of becoming like dispossessed migrants.

Neoliberal Citizenship carries significant theoretical implications for current research on neoliberalism, citizenship, borders and security. The book is organized around a logically structured narrative and an interdisciplinary engagement with numerous thinkers. While the work is mostly conceptually driven, Mavelli makes complex notions accessible to a large range of readers through his prose. His arguments are fleshed out through a rich series of illustrations from specific case studies (Europe and New Zealand) but can be expanded to other countries, such as Argentina of President Javier Milei, who champions an unhinged version of capitalism and proposes to establish a legal market for human organs. Few may remember that this idea was already advanced by neoliberal economist Becker and Elias (2007:3-24), whose influential thought has also contributed to sacralize the market (Mavelli 2022: 162). Hence, Neoliberal Citizenship is a crucial book for those concerned with the social, racial and economic inequalities generated by neoliberalism, which has thrived and pervaded our existences thanks to its quasi-religious credo.