How Maquiladora Industries Contribute to Mexico-U.S. Labor Migration

While the California corridor of the U.S.-Mexico border is known for its concentration of large maquiladoras, as well as a route for migration into the United States, there has been little research on how maquiladora employment impacts on international labor migration using subjects north of the border. An analysis of data from the Encuesta sobre Migración en la Frontera Norte de México (1993-1997), administered to those returned by the Border Patrol, finds that potential labor migrants with maquiladora work experience differ from the traditional migratory stream of agricultural workers, as well as from those from other occupational groups. They are more likely to be female, single, highly educated, urban, younger, and less likely to be heads of households. Findings from 101 in-depth interviews with persons who have both maquila and other work experience, and who have worked in the U.S., show that male borderlanders are able to best take advantage of opportunities in maquilas to acquire social and human capital facilitating migration. Borderlander women, along with men and women from the interior, with maquila experience also migrate, but have acquired less social capital. This is a result of economic restructuring to bring industry northward. Maquiladoras facilitate workers' migration by helping them to obtain documents. Higher wages are the greatest motivator of labor migration, and are reinforced by age discrimination and a lack of labor law enforcement. In addition, maquila employees also migrate to avoid discrimination, intensity of work, harsh discipline, labor market instability and poor pension benefits.Mientras el conocido como «corredor de California», en la frontera de EEUU con México, concentra un gran número de maquiladoras, al mismo tiempo que se conforma como ruta de emigración hacia EEUU, encontramos que es escasa la investigación que analiza el impacto que el empleo en la industria maquiladora tiene en la migración laboral en la frontera norte de México. El análisis de datos de la Encuesta sobre migración en la frontera norte de México (1993-1997) realizada a aquellos que regresaron a México por intervención de la patrulla fronteriza, encuentra que la experiencia laboral en la industria maquiladora actúa potencialmente en la emigración laboral, con lo cual se diferencia de otras corrientes migratorias tradicionales, como los trabajadores agrícolas y otros grupos profesionales. La diferencia viene marcada porque aquellos que emigran, tras tener un trabajo previo en la maquila, son más mujeres, más solteros, con mayor cualificación, más urbanos, más jóvenes y menos cabezas de familia. Por otra parte, los hallazgos de 101 entrevistas realizadas en profundidad con personas que, o bien tienen experiencia laboral en la maquila, o bien tienen otra experiencia laboral, además de haber trabajado en EEUU, muestra que los varones que viven en la frontera aprovechan mejor la oportunidad de trabajar en la maquila con el fin de adquirir el capital social y humano necesario que facilite la migración. De igual modo, las mujeres que viven en la frontera, así como los hombres y las mujeres que vienen del interior de México y han tenido experiencia en la maquila, también emigran, pero con un menor capital social. Este es el resultado de la reestructuración económica que se ha producido tras la relocalización industrial en la frontera norte de México. Las maquiladoras facilitan la migración de los trabajadores ayudándoles a conseguir los documentos necesarios. Por otra parte, los salarios más altos al otro lado de la frontera es la mayor motivación para la migración laboral, reforzado todo ello por la carencia de una adecuada normativa de trabajo y de discriminación por edad. Además del pago, los empleados de la maquila también emigran para evitar la discriminación, la intensidad de su ocupación, la férrea disciplina, la inestabilidad del mercado laboral y las reducidas pensiones

Experiencias biográficas de trabajadoras en la industria de exportación en el norte de México y Marruecos

El presente artículo reflexiona sobre cómo la globalización económicaafecta a la vida de las mujeres que trabajan en la industria de exportaciónen espacios fronterizos marcados por la porosidad de dicha frontera. Hemos queridointerrogarnos acerca de cómo lo macro afecta a lo micro, coadyuvando a lageneración de espacios glolocales, donde la vivencia transfronteriza y la migración(interna o internacional) adquiere relevancia. Para ello se han escogido dosrelatos biográficos (para cada caso estudiado) que nos ayudan a ejemplificar dichasvivencias, enfatizando la función expresiva del enfoque biográfico al que se refiereBertaux. Ambos casos se han seleccionado de una investigación más amplia querecoge la vida de ochenta mujeres que cuentan con experiencia laboral en la industriade exportación en la frontera de México con EEUU y la de Marruecos conEspaña.This article reflects on how economic globalization affects the livesof women working in the export industry in border areas marked by the porosity ofsaid border. We wanted to ask ourselves about how the macro affects the micro,helping to generate glolocal spaces, where the cross-border experience and migration(internal or international) becomes relevant. To this end, two biographicalaccounts have been chosen (for each case studied) that help us to exemplify theseexperiences, emphasizing the expressive function of the biographical approach towhich Bertaux refers. Both cases have been selected from a wider investigationthat includes the lives of more than a hundred and fifty people (eighty women) whohave work experience in the export industry on the border of Mexico with the USand Morocco with Spain

Well-being and philosophy of science

This article is a mutual introduction of the science of well-being to philosophy of science and an explanation of how the two disciplines can benefit each other. In the process I argue that the science of well-being is not helpfully viewed as a social or a natural, but rather as a mixed, science. Hence its methodology will have to attend to its specific features. I discuss two of its methodological problems: justifying the role of values, and validating measures. I suggest that tackling them calls for developing mid-level rather than high theories of well-being.This is the author's accepted manuscript and will be under embargo until 24 months after the date of publication. The final version is available from Wiley at onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/phc3.12203/abstrac

Triangulation and the importance of establishing valid methods for food safety culture evaluation

The research evaluates maturity of food safety culture in five multi-national food companies using method triangulation, specifically self-assessment scale, performance documents, and semi-structured interviews. Weaknesses associated with each individual method are known but there are few studies in food safety where a method triangulation approach is used for both data collection and data analysis. Significantly, this research shows that individual results taken in isolation can lead to wrong conclusions, resulting in potentially failing tactics and wasted investments. However, by applying method triangulation and reviewing results from a range of culture measurement tools it is possible to better direct investments and interventions. The findings add to the food safety culture paradigm beyond a single evaluation of food safety culture using generic culture surveys

Towards a conceptual framework of beneficiary accountability by NGOs:An Indonesian case study

Beneficiary accountability (BA) by NGOs is a contested notion. Extant research suggests disparity and complexity over its meanings, practices and forms. Its operationalisation, although important, has been a challenge for the NGO scholars, practitioners, donors and the relevant policymakers. In this study, we offer a conceptual framework of BA based on extensive literature review. It highlights four key attributes of BA – casually demanded, action based, quasi-instrumental and focuses on beneficiary self-reliance. We then empirically illustrate the framework by drawing evidence from a case study. The data for this research has been collected via a fieldwork based case study in Indonesia and the methods employed include interviews, focus groups, observation and documentary analysis

Globalization in Tijuana maquiladoras: using historical antecedents and migration to test globalization models

This paper looks at the historical background of export led development on the Baja California peninsula to find that the transregional economy which has emerged there via maquiladora industrialization has discernible historical antecedents, and also characteristics unique to the current era. This latest form of export led development has been responsible for greater economic growth than ever before, and required the building of a labor force via migration. The migrants employed in this areas maquiladoras are more numerous, come greater distances than those in other maquiladora centers, and have caused very rapid growth in Tijuana. They also tend to absorb the social costs of industrial expansion in this area, in terms of lack of housing, environmental protection, and health care, making it difficult for them to invest in their own human capital to make this area more competitive on a world scale. Globalization here supports the transformational model better than the hyperglobalist or skeptical models

Maquiladora industrialization of the Baja California peninsula: the coexistence of thick and thin globalization with economic regionalism

This article assesses the shape of industrial growth at the western end of the US-Mexican border, analysing the degree to which globalization has diminished and/or restructured this international division. Baja California's connection to external economies is highly variable in tourism, agribusiness and export processing, with electronic maquiladoras clustering and garment production fragmenting. Most recently, dynamism has been driven by Asian investors meeting NAFTA deadlines, and impeded by recession and increased border security. The polarizing effect of globalization is demonstrated by the unprecedented emergence of a powerful group of Mexican-state and private-sector technocrats, at the expense of the majority of workers whose jobs remain poor. The state government has facilitated the development of capital intensive electronics industries, has neglected small and medium domestic suppliers, and been unable to provide public security. Low extensity, or the concentration of maquiladoras in an east-west corridor adjacent to the border, and the location of most of their owners in Southern California, indicates the strongly regional character of the maquiladora economy. However, a small number of very large capital intensive plants originate in Asia, contributing to globalization via intercontinental linkages. The findings support transformationalist and sceptical models of globalization. Copyright Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2003.