Difference and theGlobal Order

Highly Skilled/ ProfessionalHighly Skilled/ Professional

Migration & Migrant Women in Migration & Migrant Women in World Market FactoriesWorld Market Factories

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Part I. Highly Skilled MigrationPart I. Highly Skilled Migration

1.1. Definition of highly skilled migrantsDefinition of highly skilled migrants

Highly skilled migrants are those in aprofession of an extensive specialised work experience, including architects, accountantsand financial experts, engineers, technicians,researchers, scientists, teachers, healthprofessionals and specialists in informationtechnology (IT).

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2. What are the factors that make highly skilled workers 2. What are the factors that make highly skilled workers from developing countries seek employment in from developing countries seek employment in developed countries?developed countries?

Pull factors- Wage differences between countries- High demands of skilled workers in- affluent countries- ‘Industry-led’: employers being themajor force behind the selection andmigration of professionals; governmentsas ‘lubricators’

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Push factors- Deteriorating working conditions- Social factors- Political and structural factors

The Role of employment agencies

(head-hunters)

- Internet based recruitment agencies

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3. Is highly skilled migration 3. Is highly skilled migration ‘‘brain gainbrain gain’’or or ‘‘brain drainbrain drain’’ for labour sending for labour sendingcountries?countries?

‘Brain gain’?- Theoretically ⇒ ‘YES’ in the longer term - Those returnees could be positive forces in the

economic, political and social transformation of a country (Tsay, 2001, cited in Iredale, 2001)

- The outflow of abundant health professionals in the

Philippines brings financial benefits into the country

through remittances. - But, what happens when those experienced workers

do not return to their home countries?

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So, is it ‘brain drain’? - e.g., India’s loss of IT professionals (Iredale,

2001)- The outflow of skilled workers are closelyrelated with country’s development in general(e.g., South Africa)

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4. Is the code of practice preventing immigration 4. Is the code of practice preventing immigration of nurses helping both sending and receiving of nurses helping both sending and receiving countries?countries?

UK government has drawn a Code of Practice for the international recruitment of health professionals.Is the prevention of health professionals from developing countries solving problems and

benefiting in both countries? What aboutindividual choices and freedom of movement for

those workers?

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Part II. Migrant Women in World MarketPart II. Migrant Women in World MarketFactoriesFactories

1. The New International Division of Labour (NIDL)NIDL - the division of production into different skills and tasks and spreading those different parts of production across regions and countries rather than within a single companyIn the late 1980s, the rapid industrialisation in East Asian Newly industrialising countries (NICs) -> A huge increase of wages inthe manufacturing sector in the 1980s As a result…

Large Koreans firms (e.g., Samsung, LG, Daewoo) relocatedlabour-intensive assembling factories to countries with cheaperlabour costs (China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh andEastern European countries)

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The Globalisation of Production- ‘Footloose’ global mobile capital →easily relocating their production lines toother countries providing cheap labour- ‘The race to the bottom’ syndrome: non-stop search for ever cheaperlabour → high levels of exploitation(‘sweatshops’)

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2. The Feminisation of Labour 2. The Feminisation of Labour

High concentration of the women workforce in global factories in Export Processing Zones (EPZs)

65% of workers are women at overseas Korean firms in China, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia. 88% of shop-floor workers are women in nine electronic factories of one industrial complex in Thailand. 85% of the total workforce are women in state owned cotton mills in the export sector in China.83% of the total workforce (1.6.million) are women in the garment industry in Bangladesh.

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Why female workers?Why female workers?

-Easy to discipline and less likely to

unionise

-Young women who are first-time entrants into waged labour → most suitable for

the operation of global factories

-A direct source of cheap labour

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3. The Globalisation of Production and 3. The Globalisation of Production and MigrationMigration

Internal Migration- Many female workers in world marketfactories are drawn from the rural subsistenceFarming.- Large-scale employment in commercialagriculture displacing small farmer and resulting in

rural to urban migration- The expansion of export manufacturingindustries in EPZs creating new jobs for ruralyoung women

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China

- A ‘world factory’

- A dramatic increase in the relocation of TNCs → 100million peasant workers having migrated from rural to urban China

- 10million migrant workers in Guangdong Province

(China’s 2000 National census): Women constitute

more than 60% of the total workforce.

Those female workers usually come to Guangdong

from poorer provinces along the Yangzi River.

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International Migration- Systemic links between the employment of women and global

production in less developed countries and the employment of

migrant women in developed countries

TNCs creating material and cultural linkages to the countries where the capital originates.

- Rural migrants to EPZs as potential international migrants:

e.g., a relation between expansion of Korean TNCs’ world

market factories in Asia and an influx of Asian migrants to Korea

from the countries that have been the central sites for Korean

overseas factories (China, Vietnam and Sri Lanka)

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4. Case study: Migrant Woman Workers in the 4. Case study: Migrant Woman Workers in the Manufacturing Sector in South KoreaManufacturing Sector in South Korea

(1) Labour shortages in the manufacturing sector - Small firms remain to operate in Korea because of:small capital base to go overseas;lack of adequate information on operating overseas;geographically dependent and immobile nature of theindustry.- Serious labour shortages in the small and mediumsized manufacturing firms: shifts of job preferences ofKorean workers avoiding ‘3-D’ jobs- Alternatively, manufacturing firms started to hirecheap migrant workers from developing countries, mainly in Asia

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(2) Gender segmentation in the manufacturing

sectorMigrant women in the manufacturing sector: Garments (43%); Electronics (10.8%); and Plastics (5.7%)*

Concentration of women workers in pre-assembly, assembly, post-assembly or finishing departments in the manufacturing factory

Maintenance departments and engineers are exclusively for male workers.

*Sources: Lee, H-K (2003) ‘Gender, Migration and Civil Activism in South Korea’, Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 12(1-2):127-153.

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(2) Gender Segmentation in the manufacturing sector

Case

The factory where I’m working is producing keypads andscreens for mobile phones and other small electronic goods. I pickfaulty products at the end of the assembly line. On the ground floor

there are 40 woman workers, in the assembly line. On the first floor there are about 35 woman workers, in the packing line. And on the Second floor, there are only Korean male workers who work with machines. It is very clear about men’s jobs and women’s jobs in the factory. Men tend to do physically hard work, and women do the jobs requiring close and careful attention.

(Marilou, 30, Filipina)

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(3) Pays and working conditions in the manufacturing factory

Case 1

I’m inspecting faulty products in an automobile accessories manufacturing assembly. I work for 10 hours per day - from 8.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m. with a 30 minutes lunch break. I also work on Saturday till 2.30 p.m. My monthly salary is only 800,000 won ($800). My job is very tiring. I check faults in very small nuts and bolts which are parts of cars. I do about 10 boxes – one box contains 500 nuts and bolts. My job needs concentration for all day. My eyes hurt. If I don’t finish the checking 10 boxes, I cannot go home and have to do unpaid overtime to finish.

(Lisa, 36, Filipina)

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(3) Pays and conditions in the manufacturing factory(3) Pays and conditions in the manufacturing factory

Case 2 I work as a machine operator in the mobile phone

manufacturing factory. I assemble a screen into a mobile phone handset. The factory is a subcontractor of major mobile phone companies in Korea. I work 12 hours a day – from 8.30 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. It’s hard and tiring. I’m the only one doing this job in the factory. So it’s quite stressful because I’ve got a total responsibility for sorting out faulty products. If there is a faulty screen, it’s my fault. So you have to carefully concentrate on your job. At the same time, I have to do the job in speed. My monthly salary is 1,000,000 won ($1,000). It is four months’ salary of a military general in the Philippines. I send 800,000 won ($800) to my family in every month.

(Jo, 45, Filipina)