Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
to South. On the positive side, EPZs and global supply chains have cre-
ated employment opportunities in the South, particularly for women.
There is also evidence to suggest that offshore production has contrib-
uted to technological advances, some localized economic growth and the
development of niche industries in the rapidly developing economies of
Asia. Rigg (2007) notes that export-oriented production strategies have
been more successful in Asia than in Latin America due to differences
in national governance, local state involvement and worker militancy.
Despite widespread concerns over working conditions, the NIDL
has
provided some women with new work opportunities that have enabled
them to earn higher wages, return to education, and gain some social
mobility. As Freeman (2000) asserts, the offshore data-processing
industries of the Caribbean provide young women with an alternative
to arduous agricultural work and the chance to save towards small
business development. However, it is often only more educated and
skilled female workers that have been able to take advantage of the
new opportunities, and research suggests that such work can increase
the 'triple burden' on such women in undertaking paid labour, repro-
ductive responsibilities and community care (see Chapters 4.1 and 4.3).
According to the ILO (2010),
'
vulnerable employment' is characterized
by inadequate earnings, low productivity and a lack of social protection.
Despite the fact that there were 3,500 EPZs employing 66 million work-
ers worldwide in 2008 (ILO, 2010), the NIDL has only provided a fraction
of the jobs needed to tackle a global vulnerable employment rate of
1.6 billion workers. Profits from export industries are also largely accu-
mulated outside the host nation with little trickle-down in terms of wealth
and development in the local economy. New jobs are often deskilled, haz-
ardous, insecure and highly competitive, with coercive management
structures and poor worker rights in many regions (Mackinnon and
Cumbers, 2007). In the 1990s, the 'Maquiladora' (factory) plants along
the US and Mexican border were synonymous with environmental pollu-
tion, poverty and exploitation (Potter and Lloyd-Evans, 1998). The nega-
tive consequences of economic globalization, and in particular the social
and environmental costs associated with the NIDL, have increasingly
been highlighted by Non-Governmental and Civil Society Organizations
(Oxfam, 2004). The last decade has also been witness to huge public dis-
content with global capitalism as media coverage of sweatshop labour,
child workers, and modern-day slavery, has led international institutions
to question whether the global expansion of labour markets has shaped
development outcomes for the better.
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