Abstract

MONTERO, Jerónimo. Discourses in fashion: Justifying the exploitation of migrant workers in ‘national sweatshops’. Trab. soc. [online]. 2014, n.23, pp.107-125. ISSN 1514-6871.

This article seeks to examine the main arguments used by fashion entrepreneurs to contest accusations of the exploitation of migrant workers in small inner-city sweatshops. Based on one year of fieldwork in Buenos Aires and Prato (Italy), in this article three main beliefs promoted by firms are identified. Firstly, the constraints posed by the significant increase of garment imports since the trade liberalisation is used to gain tolerance towards their labour practices and financial support from the governments. Secondly, because the subcontracting chains are very complex, and may encompass a number of workshops scattered around the city’s landscape, fashion entrepreneurs claim that it is impossible for them to control the whole chain. Finally, since these sweatshops are managed by migrant petty-entrepreneurs who exploit their co-nationals, the guilt is placed in the migrant communities as a whole due to their alleged ‘cultural habit’ of ‘exploiting each other’. Here these assumptions are challenged, in the understanding that they are strong ideological barriers to policy-making and to anti-sweatshop activism.

Keywords : Fashion; Garment industry; Clothing industry; Migrant workers; Sweatshops; Human trafficking.

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