Globalization: Maquiladoras and Their Negative Impact Upon the Environment and Women in Mexico

Over the years, women have been key participants in the work force, labor unions, and strikes. Recently, women have taken part in organizing the labor in the maquiladoras in Mexico. The duty-free assembly plants located on the U.S./Mexican border, known as maquiladoras, have threatened and abused their workers and repeatedly ignored the labor laws. Women have begun to take a stand and fight for their rights as well as for their fellow workers.

In a changing economic and political climate gender stereotypes in Juárez, Mexico refuse to change. With an increasing number of women forced into the workplace in maquiladoras(1), men's position and women's assumed position in society is being challenged. This changing economic environment in an unchanging cultural environment is part of the reason that young women are disappearing being raped and mutilated before ultimately being killed and "abandoned like meat by-products in the desert" (Pérez, March 2004). These women's bodies are entering unknowingly and unwilling into a war about cultural norms and a changing economic atmosphere.

We have read and watched a lot of information about the women and the way they are treated in their working area, specifically when we talked about the maquiladoras on the boarder. This week we are presented with another source of information about the maquiladoras and how maquiladora employees live their daily lives. The film, “Maquilapolis” by Vicky Funari and Sergio de la Torre uses a social art practice to contribute to the privileging of subalterns voices. In the film, the filmmakers start by telling the stories of a few women who worked for the maquilas and tell their experience as employees of those big corporations such as Sony, Panasonic, Sanyo, among many others. Some of these women explain how they started working since those maquiladoras opened in the 1960’s and they explain how it was a big deal to work

A maquiladora is a manufacturing plant based in Mexico where foreign companies import materials and equipment, on a duty free and tariff free basis, for the purposes of processing, manufacturing, or assembling goods which are then exported to other countries. The idea behind these maquiladoras promises a prosperous Mexican society. On paper, it really does seem like NAFTA is living up to expectations; creation of more jobs and a much less unemployment rate. On the surface, there seems to be nothing wrong with what’s going on in Mexico in terms of employment. Everyone has jobs and everyone is getting paid for these jobs, so what’s the issue? Despite all of this, the degrading and terrible working conditions imposed upon the maquiladora workers

During the late twentieth century, nations throughout the Western Hemisphere found themselves exhausted economically due to a combination of recessions which occurred from the late sixties to the early nineteen eighties-caused most in part due to energy crises and government regulations to combat inflation (due to counteract Cold War spending). Combined with growing economic interdependence, due to the need for foreign resources needed for the sustainable growth and expansion of consumer-based manufacturing markets in the developed world-beginning post World War Two, the United States and impactful developing states sought to create regional zones of economic integration that could provide solutions to internal economic concerns of employment, growth, and governmental sustainability, as well as provide a platform for prosperity in regards to capitalism, inter-market sustainability, and geo-economic authority within the region. In order to do this, beginning in the late nineteen seventies, pro-capitalistic states, such as Chile, Mexico, and most recognizably the United States- , and different economic institutions-such as the World Bank and the IMF- pushed for a new wave of liberalism, emphasizing revamped laissez-faire policies. This resurgence of classical economic liberal ideology, which is known as neoliberalism, emphasized growth

The first elements Zuloaga points out is that “the protection of the Mexican cultural industry never came up”. (Zuolaga,2001) Indeed, the NAFTA agreements made between major world powers, it is expected that many will question the validity of these agreements on an equality scale for Mexico, known as a weak country on many levels.

Walt-Mart respond to Katrina is best example of corporations act with a reason. While some decisions made by executive are ethical, but I find many of their decisions to be revenue driven. I am sure the issue of revenue loss if they get caught was discussed and a decision was made from higher office. The profits revenue from Mexico outweighs any consequences from the Mexican laws, unlike US laws.

She believes that the cheap labor model of the maquiladora industry can be ethical. That idea is not guaranteed—the hierarchal structure of the factories is a strong force. They provide jobs to those who are in need; “maquiladoras changed everything because they paid better wages than the rest of Mexico” (De La Torre & Funari, 2006, 1:48). By accumulating workers and treating them like commodities, maquiladoras continue the cycle of abuse and degradation of their workers. The ideology and hierarchy that surrounds maquiladoras is a long way from change “since to treat a disposable worker as if she were not disposable would be silly and irrational” (Wright, 2006, p.5). In the factory setting, there is no motion to change the status of women. The status quo is essential for its operation. The “flexible Mexican male worker only materializes in tandem with the inflexible female one” (Wright, 2006, p.52). While men are dependent on female workers, they also institute concepts that keep them in a devalued space. This is an elevation of the agent (men) over female agency. In the factories, men are seen as capable of flexible trained work and women are divorced from the ability of their bodies. Wright (2006) identifies this structure this as “the prosthetic body of supervision” (p.46). The emphasis on the male mind gives man purpose in the maquiladoras; women have “accepted man’s sovereignty… [and] emerged as the inessential” (Beauvoir, 2011, p.160). Female identity is reconfirmed through the factories’ “macho culture” (Wright, 2006, p.55) and their perceived lack of trainability and value in the

Globalization is difficult to simply define due to the variety of changing definitions that have been established over previous decades. Hamilton and Webster (2012) suggest that globalization is the connection between nations, defining globalization as a process in which barriers are reduced in order to encourage exchanges between countries. This view proposes that globalization refers very much so to the trade barriers and the improved communications between countries in order to ensure the world is unified. Globalization increases economic activity across the world and opens up markets for foreign investment.

Now that we have an overview of Mexico and its purposes for implementing neoliberalism, we can look at how it has hurt the economy through a different aspect of development. These policies promoted by transnational institutions are complex and have multiple desires, especially when its environmentally related. Another crucial aspect of development is the agriculture and environment sector, and this is one sector that does not receive much attention, but is severely effected. Many opposed to the principles of neoliberalism, and majority of these votes came from the lower class in Mexico. I believe when countries make these decisions, it is important to incorporate the ideas that are pitched from different class levels. The government might think

develop dangerous health consequences, an many people taken advantage of, causing social problems. According to the American Journal of Public Health, written by Sylvia Guendelman, PhD professor at University of California, Berkley graduate in health services and policy analysis, and Monica J. Silberg, high levels of pressure in maquiladoras have been associated with generic symptoms such as gastric disorder, depression, menstrual problem, and mass hysteria. Health problems depended on what industries the worker dealt with. “Pulmonary and eye problems, dermatitis, hand injuries, and musculoskeletal disorders have been like had been reported among textile and apparel workers. Eye irritation, visual acuity loss, headaches, nervousness, and allergies, and adverse pregnancy outcomes have been identified among electronic assembly plant workers. (Guandelman, Silberg 37)” Many people risk their health conditions for cheap salaries. Women were mostly abused, due to the fact that they were uninterested in joining unions (so they became an easy target). The Mexican government failed to protect women from pregnancy. In many maquilas they report to have screening to pick out the pregnant women out. These workers’ minimum wage has been so low that is insufficient to maintain a family. According to Richard D. Vogel’s , retires professor who focusses in social and political issues, article Stolen Birthright: The U.S. Conquest and Exploitation of the Mexican People, he quotes that, “wages

On January 1, 1994, the nations of the United States, Canada, and Mexico entered into a three-way partnership to supposedly lift trade barriers and improve production in all three countries. This is called the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). However, the effect was generally ruinous for southern Mexico. Trans-national corporations from Europe, Asia, and especially North America invested heavily in closing down factories inside their nations (primarily for environmental and labor costs) and establishing new ones, almost all of which

Not surprisingly, exemption from U.S. environmental regulations has led to toxic releases of PCBs, pesticide sprays, chlorine compounds, phenols, and hazardous wastes in areas of Mexico designated as maquilas, or free trade zones. Inequalities between national environmental standards have also hurt U.S. firms by reducing the costs of production abroad, and thus the price competitiveness of U.S. industries in all NAFTA markets. Extended to cover the entire American hemisphere, inequality in environmental standards could lead to even more environmental damages by precipitating a "race to the bottom" where individual countries shuffle to lower their environmental standards relative to other states in order to attract investment from wealthy countries. Environmental standards in Mexico have failed to progress in the last eight years precisely for this reason.  

Canada and the United States are both highly developed industrial nations that have high levels of environmental regulation and enforcement of such. Whereas Mexico, as a developing nation, stands in contrast to them. Although some point out that Mexico has comprehensive law providing strict environmental protection which can be considered just as stringent as Canadian or American legislation. Due to the fact that Mexico lacks the financial resources to fully enforce these regulations it therefore is considered to be more lax in regards to environmental regulations. In this sense Mexico will act as the Pollution Haven due to weaker environmental policy enforcement compared to the US and Canada, which are similar in terms of environmental policy implementation and enforcement.

The concept of globalization has become a prevalent phenomenon in the past two decades because of the changes it has brought and the adoption of its strategies by multinational corporations or companies. The economic changes of globalization include the strengthening of economic inter-dependence, internationalization of production, and enhanced mobility of transnational corporations. On the other hand, trade liberalization, privatization, and deregulation are the ideological changes emanating from this concept.