Affect Of Globalization on Discrimination

Globalization

According to Yin and Choi, from The Globalization Myth: The Case of China, globalization increases the flow of trade, investment and financial capital. This allows economic activities to become mobile, and for firms to disperse their production across locations and become capable of supporting distant markets and customers. This expansion in the economy lowers the transaction costs and therefore increases the trade and financial flow within countries.

Due to the globalization of China, it is said that China will have the worlds largest economy by 2020. However, it is said that China is "regionalized" rather than globalized. The international manufacturing is organized regionally in China, rather than globally. There are several reasons as to why China has been regionalized. Firstly, Chinas economy has the highest growth rate and it has localized the domestic markets. Secondly, only two cities (Guangzhou, and Shanghai) within China have created location advantages in the form of highly skilled labor. Thirdly, there are location advantages due to the presence and attraction of Multi-National Enterprise, which owns and control the production of goods and services in other countries. Lastly, these location advantages "diffuse" the rest of China, due to the shortage of skilled labor because of resource constraints.

As mentioned in Porter's article, globalization allows companies to source capital, and good from anywhere to locate operations where the cost would be minimal. The globalization of China has attracted many companies to manufacture goods in the country. These companies own factories in China due to the low cost of labor, which is due to China's shortage of highly skilled labor. According to Winn, these companies pay their employees as low as 50-75 cents for a 10-hour shift and often have poor working conditions and offer no benefits, and discriminate against these workers.

Chinese Working Conditions in Sweatshops

The study that was conducted by China Labor Watch discusses some of the issues with the working conditions in the sweatshops in China.

The first issue is overtime, many employees work 36 to 160 hours of overtime a month, however, the Labor Law of China only allows 36 hours of overtime in a month.

The second issue being minimum wage, the minimum wage is not enough to meet the cost of living from just normal working hours that are scheduled for the employee. Therefore, the employee works excessive hours in order to survive and meet the living costs.

Thirdly, is the issue of labor intensity. Many jobs require employees to stand for more than 10 hours straight, and they only receive a 10-minute break during the middle of the day. This break doesn't allow the employee enough time to go to the bathroom at times due to the lack of bathrooms. This 10-minute break also doesn't give the employee enough time to eat. Those that take bathroom breaks outside of their 10-minute break are often yelled at and abused.

The 4th issue is the labor contract. Many of the employees are not informed about the content that is on the contract, therefore the workers are not able to use the labor contract for their legal rights, and they are unable to claim compensation when they get injured on the job. This also allows companies to fire employees abruptly with no job security. In factories such as H&M, GAP, and Forever 21 if the employee is not stitching fast enough they are fired, and easily replaced. This helps the factory save a lot of money, and increase their profit.

The final issue is discrimination. These factories discriminate against age and gender. These companies tend to hire females, who are not pregnant between the ages of 18 to 40. They hire those who aren't pregnant because they have to train them, and they don't allow maternity leaves. They also believe that women who are pregnant take more washroom breaks, and are not as efficient as those who aren't pregnant.

Social Injustice

Social justice is based on the full participation of citizens of a country on the economic, social, and political life of that country, and it is based on human rights. However, China doesn't allow these privileges to be distributed within the country, and there is an unequal distribution of wealth due to the lack of skilled labor within the country. Social injustice is a large issue within China and the companies that manufacture in China, which leads to discrimination against the employees in many ways. Injustice is often referred to as oppression, which is the unjust treatment of people, or according to Young, it is the exercise of a ruling group. The ruling group is the company owners, which posses a lot of power. There are certain groups that are oppressed and Young defined them with 5 faces of oppression, which are five conditions. These 5 conditions include; exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence. The groups that are oppressed are often minority groups such as women, those that lack power, those with disabilities.

Discrimination in Chinese Factories Such as; H&M, Forever 21, GAP

Young's Faces of Oppression

Exploitation

According to Young's Five Faces of Oppression, exploitation is when a capitalist abuses its workers in order to make a large profit off products. In the case of H&M. Forever 21 and GAP, these companies abuse the workers by paying them very minimally in order to make large profits. As mentioned by Winn these factory workers get paid around 50 to 75 cents for a 10-hour shift. During this shift, they make around 2,000 shirts, which are sold for a minimum price of $10.00 and go up to $50.00 depending on style, and material used. This leaves the company with a large profit.

Working in a factory requires minimum skill level, and don't require any level of education, which are also why they are low paying. About 1/3 of the workers that these companies hire are children in their early teens ranging from ages 12-14, these children are mostly high school drop-outs. This is due to the cycle of poverty that is occurring in China. Most of these children often have a parent that is also in this labor industry, therefore they aren't getting paid enough to support their family which is the reason behind why their children also enter this labor-intensive work.

The issue with the cycle of poverty is also discussed by Maxwell. Maxwell discusses how some families try to escape poverty. He claims, in hopes to escape the poverty people form families, or they send a second or third person to go to work. This is because the minimum wage in China is not enough for survival.

Marginalization

Marginalization is another form of oppression that is seen in Chinese factories. Marginalization is when the system refuses to use certain individuals for work. This marginalization discriminates against those people of; older age, single mothers, mentally and physically disabled, and women that are pregnant. Companies marginalize these people due to the belief that they are inefficient, or because they will not be able to commit to the work. As Winn explains, women try to hide their pregnancy for as long as they can, because they will get fired if the company finds out about the pregnancy. Companies view those who are pregnant as unproductive and slow and believe they take frequent bathroom breaks which are frowned upon by employers.

Powerlessness

Powerlessness is the condition that is faced by these workers because they lack authority and power. Therefore they are unable to express creativity and have no control over anything at work. Those who are in positions of power often have more knowledge, meaning they are college graduates. The privilege of power extend until the end of one's life and is often passed on through generations.

The workers at these factories have a very minimal level of education and are living in the cycle of poverty. Therefore they lack power in the factory. Those who have power over these employees often disrespect them, treat them unfairly, and provide them with very poor working conditions. Privileges and wealth are distributed unequally in China, which results in the powerlessness of these individuals.

Violence

Violence is often directed at those who are oppressed. In these factories, the employees are victims of everyday verbal, physical, and emotional abuse. This deprives the individuals from their freedom and dignity. In North America, we often see violence being directed to those who identify themselves as gay or as women. As explained by Winn the Chinese government is against the higher wage for these laborers. Therefore when these factory protested against the working conditions, and low wages, the police arrested some, and shot fire at the protestors and killed 3.