Upgrading,uneven development,and jobs in the North American apparel industry

In this article we examine the developmental consequences of globalization at multiple scales, using a commodity chains framework to investigate the case of the North American apparel industry. In the first section we outline the apparel commodity chain and offer a brief typology of its lead firms. In the second section we discuss the concept of industrial upgrading and describe several main export roles in the global apparel industry. In the third section we focus on the regional dynamics resulting from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). We contrast the Mexican experience with that of countries in the Caribbean Basin to show the impact of distinct trade policies on export‐oriented development. We argue that NAFTA is creating upgrading opportunities for some Mexican firms to move from the low value‐added export‐oriented assembly (or maquila) model to full‐package production. In the fourth section we explore the unevenness of upgrading dynamics through a comparison of two blue jeans manufacturing clusters in the United States and Mexico: El Paso and Torreon. Our conclusions about upgrading and uneven development in the North American apparel industry emphasize the importance of local, national and regional institutional contexts in shaping inter‐firm networks and their development impact.     

Language shift and the family: Questions from the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora1

Fishman's Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (GIDS) emphasizes the family in maintaining the heritage languages of immigrant communities. This study uses interview data from Sri Lankan Tamil communities in the U.S.A., U.K., and Canada to explain how families account for the rapid loss of Tamil in the diaspora. It shows how the positive valuation of English since British colonization, the need to make up for past deprivations because of caste, religious, and gender inequality, the pressure for migrants to join the social mainstream, and the need to resolve intergenerational tensions influence the family to forego language maintenance goals. The findings encourage us to situate the family in macro‐social institutions, power, and history in order to understand the prospects for language maintenance. The article provides an inside view of the Sri Lankan Tamil migrant families to explain how they resolve the tensions of valuing cultural identity and yet disregarding heritage language proficiency.     

Globalizing Firms and Small Communities: The Apparel Industry's Changing Connection to Rural Labor Markets*

Abstract This paper explores changing relationships between apparel firms and rural labor markets in Wisconsin over the last decade. Mainstream explanations of recent changes in the apparel industry suggest that rural communities will lose tedious or physically demanding, low‐skilled apparel manufacturing jobs but will gain more information‐intensive and desirable “apparel service” employment. Through case studies of apparel firms located in two Wisconsin communities, the paper argues that current changes in the industry not only affect communities unevenly but, even in regions where apparel service firms have provided significant numbers of new jobs, these jobs are less well paid, more casually structured, and less secure than manufacturing employment has been. The paper argues that current concepts of the economic embeddedness of firms in communities need to be refined to permit consideration of the kinds of leverage and voice that community organizations have in confronting new forms of corporate capital. The two case studies demonstrate that corporate embeddedness and its labor market outcomes are linked to changes in the global market in which firms compete.     

Predatory purchasing practices in global apparel supply chains and the employment relations squeeze in the Indian garment export industry

While the literature has long acknowledged worker rights abuses in global apparel supply chains, less attention has been paid to the recent worsening of certain decent work deficits and its causes, which this article links to predatory purchasing practices arising from growing power asymmetries. These practices, illustrated here by the garment export industry in India, exert downward pressure on wages and incite non‐standard forms of employment and greater verbal and physical abuse as productivity demands rise. They can be addressed through pricing mechanisms that cover the cost of decent work, appropriate State regulation and worker involvement.     

The use and abuse of female domestic workers from Sri Lanka in Lebanon

Women who migrate from Sri Lanka to become domestic workers in Lebanon face gender, class, and race discrimination that often results in abuse, yet the predicament of these women is largely ignored by local and international humanitarian and human rights agencies. Public consciousness about the plight of Asian domestic workers in the Persian Gulf region was raised in 1990 when domestic workers were repatriated in the wake of the Gulf War. In Lebanon, nearly half of the work permits granted to foreigners in 1997 were to women from Sri Lanka. This migration began in the 1970s and is sanctioned by the Sri Lanka government because of the economic benefits accruing from wages sent home by these women. Lebanese families procure domestic positions through an employment agency that arranges transportation and entry for the Sri Lankan women. These women, especially minors, often have to bribe Sri Lankan government agents to falsify travel documents. Upon arrival in Lebanon, the women have no support systems or job security. Most employment contracts last 3 years and pay $100/month with no benefits or protection from local labor laws. Domestic workers are made vulnerable by employers who withhold salaries or travel documents. Upon return to Sri Lanka, former domestic workers face social disapproval and marital problems. To redress this situation, the governments of sending and receiving countries must take action to protect female migrant workers, and nongovernmental organizations must publicize the plight of these women and take action to address the abuses they face.     

The Self at a Time of War in Northern Sri Lanka

The article takes one young Tamil woman, Vasantha, and her account of growing up in the northern war zone of Jaffna in Sri Lanka. Vasantha's narrative and her adolescence, like others of her generation, was framed by living at the margins of the Sri Lankan state (though under its bombardment) and under the control of a repressive quasi-state actor, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). In this article, I twin Vasantha's fashioning of her life-story with a meditation on the ways in which the Sri Lankan war, specifically LTTE control over Tamil lives, has come to ambivalently frame and produce particular understandings of selfhood, articulations of collectivity and individuality. Here, I argue that individuation takes many different forms, and, specifically, that the ruptures of war produces individuation in unexpected ways. I take Vasantha's story to explicate the experiences of young people in northern Sri Lanka, and, as an illustration of the contraction and expansion of particular possibilities of selfhood in the midst of political.     

A model of substance abuse risk: adapting to the Sri Lankan context

This study translated and validated the Substance Use Risk Profile Scale (SURPS) among 13 to 18 year old Sri Lankan adolescents attending school. A standard systematic translation procedure was followed to translate the original SURPS into Sinhala language. A Delphi process was conducted to determine judgmental validity of Sinhala SURPS. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to test the translated version against the original theoretical model of the SURPS. Test-retest and internal consistency were used to ensure reliability. A few terms in one of the items posed some difficulty in translating into Sinhala. Adequate judgmental validity was determined except for one item, which was modified to suit the Sri Lankan setting. The four subscales introversion/ hopelessness, impulsivity, sensation seeking and anxiety sensitivity showed satisfactory test-retest reliability estimates of .74, .68, .76, and .88, respectively. The Sinhala SURPS is applicable in Sri Lankan context. Several implications based on the results are discussed.     

The Canadian Tamil Diaspora and the Politics of Multiculturalism

This article explores Tamil diasporic engagement in Toronto, at the turn of the Sri Lankan struggle in 2009, to foreground the contested and transnational character of Canadian multiculturalism. It asks whether Canadian multicultural discourse provides a space for social and political identity-making within the Tamil-Canadian Diaspora. The article then sketches the way multiculturalism informed Tamil-Canadian identity-making amongst young and older Tamil-Canadians prior to these events. It explores how diasporic identity was then crystallized in 2009 through media and political responses within the mainstream and the Diaspora itself. The article argues that security discourses dramatically prefigured the terms of engagement for Tamil-Canadians during the final months of the civil war in Sri Lanka. It concludes by drawing attention to the transformative possibilities of multiculturalism and the way the diasporic lens that this case study uses may contribute to this discussion.     

Indian Ocean Tsunami and its influence on the resurgence of social work as an academic discipline in Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT

In December 2004, the massive Indian Ocean Tsunami hit the coastal areas of Sri Lanka causing a devastating impact on the lives of people. National and International humanitarian aid received in the aftermath was unprecedented. Among this was a team of professors and students from the faculty of Social Work, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, who conducted a summer camp as a social work practice project together with Sri Lankan undergraduates. The objective was to initiate a project for support based on an action research model adopting a short-term design built upon a needs assessment. While critically looking at the process of international support in the context of country’s long history of state welfare and community support systems, the paper also focuses on one major lapse among others, negligence of people’s needs during disaster interventions. The paper attempts to view this situation in relation to the absence of an established social work profession in the country and examines the applicability of an international framework and concepts of social work in developing academic and professional social work in a context as diverse as Sri Lanka.     

Muslims in post-war Sri Lanka: understanding Sinhala-Buddhist mobilization against them

This study attempts to understand the recent mobilization against the Sri Lankan Muslim community by Sinhala-Buddhist organizations. In doing so, it adds to the discussion about the relationship between second-order minorities and the state and how identities can be manipulated pre- and post-conflict. States, led by majority ethnic groups, may choose to work with second-order minorities out of convenience in times of crisis and then dispose of them afterwards. The article will attempt to look critically at some state concessions to Muslim political leaders who supported successive Sri Lanka’s ruling classes from the independence through the defeat of the Tamil Tigers in 2009. It will also examine the root causes of the Sinhala-Buddhist anti-Muslim campaigns. Finally, it will discuss grassroots perspectives by analysing the questionnaire on the anti-Islam/Muslim campaign that was distributed to youth, students, unemployed Muslims and workers in the North-Western and Western provinces.     

The role of local stakeholders in transforming economic upgrading into social upgrading in Ethiopian textile and garment firms

The authors examine the links between economic and social upgrading in a developing country with stringent industry policy and employment legislation, focusing on the strategies of local firms participating in global apparel production networks. Based on the 2015 case studies of five textile and garment firms in Ethiopia, they find that employment security and physical well-being were driven mainly by government labour regulations negotiated by local employers, workers and trade unions rather than by global buyers and conclude that upgrading and downgrading can occur simultaneously within a firm.     

Global production and local jobs: can global enterprise networks be used as levers for local development?

This article is developed out of a research project on ‘Global Production and Local Jobs’ launched by the International Institute for Labour Studies of the International Labour Organization (ILO). It identifies salient features of global production networks in the automobile, electronics and apparel industries, and discusses their implications for local industrial upgrading, jobs and development policy. The approach combines in novel forms complementary analytical frameworks such as the global value chain and industrial district perspectives, in order to highlight interactions between global and local forces in the operation of transnational production networks. Central issues revealed by this approach include: the rise of entry barriers into the most profitable, service‐intensive activities of global value chains, that reduce small firms' prospects for industrial upgrading; the uneven benefits derived from participation in global production networks at the local level; and the need for local institutions to devise policy responses through a flexible, network‐oriented approach involving a broad local constituency.     

The Migration–Development Nexus: Sri Lanka Case Study

This paper explores the relationship between migration and development in Sri Lanka, a country that has been the source of large numbers of migrants and the recipient of much development assistance. Commissioned as part of a wider study conducted by the Centre for Development Research, Denmark, this case study seeks to answer a set of specific questions about the nature and extent of links between development assistance and migration flows. The paper surveys the socio–economic context in which both migration and development have taken place in Sri Lanka, describing the causes, scale, and features of migration flows from Sri Lanka in recent decades. Two main streams of migration flows are identified: labour migration and political migration. The flows are distinguished by ethnic characteristics (the former is mostly Sinhalese and the latter pre–dominantly Tamil) and destination (the former to the Middle East and the latter to the West). Both flows have intensified during a time of protracted conflict and in the context of waraffected economic development since the early 1980s.
The importance of remittances from migrants to the Sri Lankan economy and the extent to which diaspora activities impact Sri Lanka are also discussed. Despite the lack of statistics, especially on informal remittances from the Tamil diaspora, it is suggested that the remittances have been and will continue to be a sizeable component of foreign exchange receipts in Sri Lanka. The paper concludes that the complex interactions between migration, development assistance, remittances, and conflict are important for the prospects for peace and reconstruction in Sri Lanka. The challenge in Sri Lanka will be to move from a vicious cycle of conflict, underdevelopment and migration to a more virtuous one. In this process, it is suggested that the diaspora will be a key player in the shift towards peace and remittances will be an integral part of reconstruction.     

Unmeasured skills in inter-industry wage differentials: Evidence from the apparel industry

Several recent studies have used first-differenced models to test the unmeasured-skills hypothesis with mixed results. I use matched-panel data from the CPSfrom 1983–1995 and retrospective data from the DWS from 1984–1992 to test for the possible effect of unmeasured skill on apparel workers’wages. The apparel industry provides a better test of the unmeasured-skills hypothesis than the overall economy because the likelihood of noncompetitive distortions to the wage is small. My results indicate that between 64 and 80 percent of the apparel industry differential is caused by skills unmeasured in standard OLS regressions, suggesting competitive wages for workers moving between apparels and other industries. The author appreciates the helpful suggestions from Barry Hirsch and William Stewart Mounts, Jr. The CPS and DWS data sets used in this paper were provided by Barry Hirsch and David Macpherson.     

Unravelling Memories of Family Separation Among Sri Lankan Tamils Resettled in Australia, 1983–2000

Abstract

Using life story interviews with 10 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees resettled in Australia, this article shows how family separation in experiences of civil war and resettlement produce long-lasting and emotional memories of fear and determination. The findings explore how young Tamil people gave meaning to family when they interacted with key individuals and negotiated cultural practices in different spaces. Moreover, intergenerational family narratives emerged as a key practice through which Tamils preserved the family identity. The analysis demonstrates how and when family separation can manifest in personal memories to reveal stories of agency and resilience. A critical engagement of the past can help to better understand concepts of childhood in relation to family and family separation in war affected diaspora communities.     

Toward a Cross-Cultural Understanding of Work-Related Beliefs

Although psychology's contribution to a study ofthe Protestant Work Ethic (PWE) made a slow start we nowhave an impressive array of studies which have examinedthis construct, even cross-culturally, and find that not only is this construct seeminglyalive and well, but also that it is espoused morestrongly by non-Protestant and non-Western countries.Furnham (1990b) examined a composite of seven scales designed to measure the PWE, and found thatseveral factors could be identified. A study wasundertaken to compare the meaning of work in twodifferent cultures, one Western Christian(Australian) and the other non-Western Buddhist (Sri Lankan).The results suggest that both cultures have similarperceptions about the meaning of work, but Sri Lankansseem to be more strongly committed to hard work.Although work related beliefs seem to be similar, SriLankans do not endorse the belief that hard work leadsto success as enthusiastically as Australiansdo.     

调整中的全球经济格局与上海经济转型

在全球经济一体化的背景下,各国从欧、美、日垄断全球经济的格局转变成一个新的、不平衡的全球三角经济结构,这一经济格局现已难以为继。全球经济格局的调整,为上海经济转型提供了一个十分有利的外部环境。在参考和吸收的基础上,提出建立上海重点发展的＂十二个中心或产业＂,以此为转型的目标,将其放入国际第一梯队的城市序列中进行比较,明确目前的现状水平和发展方向。     

Income inequality,welfare and poverty in a developing economy with applications to Sri Lanka

This paper explores how the behaviour of welfare, income inequality and poverty changes during the course of a country's economic development. the analysis is based on Kuznet's model of sectorial dualism. The various propositions proved in the paper provide conditions under which the modern sector enlargement and enrichment will lead to higher social welfare and lower income inequality and poverty. It is demonstrated that Kuznet'sU-shaped curve may not exist or even if it does, the turning point may occur at a later stage of development. The paper provides numerical illustrations of the results using Sri Lankan data.This paper was written while I was a Senior Fellow at the World Institute for Development Economics Research, Helsinki, Finland. I am grateful to Juhani Holm for providing me with expert computational assistance. A referee of this Journal made some useful comments which led to considerable improvement in the paper.     

Rewiring global networks at local events: congresses in the stock photo trade

Digital technologies have enabled the geographical expansion of production and the distribution of creative goods and communication. Simultaneously, the number of trade fairs and congresses has increased. This rise of temporary encounters has led to theorizations of events as marketplaces, learning sites and field‐configuring practices. This article elaborates on the metaphor of rewiring to propose and empirically demonstrate a further role of industry events for global business. Drawing on the case of the global stock photo trade, we use a unique survey to map the global network of sales partnerships as well as interviews conducted at international lead congresses to demonstrate how these events are enacted as social relays. Our findings demonstrate how temporary face‐to‐face contact facilitates long distance relationships between organizations and how it dynamically shapes the global industry network. Thus, we contribute to closing the gap between social action at the micro level, organizational linkages at the meso level and the structure of global industry networks at the macro level.