Suchergebnisse

AbstractWorkers who temporarily leave their country to perform semi‐ and unskilled work under contract in another country are a distinct category of labour migrants in the global division of labour (GDL). The small island of Mauritius is a relatively new destination for contractual international labour migrants. The Mauritian state is intimately involved in the labour migration system, playing a mediating role in positioning the island within the GDL and trying to optimise the routing of global production chains through Mauritius. The migrants originate mainly in China and India and are overwhelmingly concentrated in the island's clothing and textile factories where they now comprise one‐fifth of the export processing zone workforce. The migrant space occupied by expatriate workers in Mauritius is tightly circumscribed, with little social interaction between them and Mauritian society. A chronicle of their collective protest between 2002 and 2005 highlights grievances that arise from the conditions they face as migrants. Pointing largely to the failure of industrial relations institutions, and having stirred xenophobic sentiments, these protests represent a catalyst for reform. While the numerical incidence and scale of labour migration to small islands may be small, their significance for GDL analysis and for the politics of migration demands attention.

Mauritius' position within the global division of labour has changed considerably since the country gained its independence from Britain in 1968. This reflects change in the country's employment structure and a re-articulation within global chains of production. In a transformation led by the state, the formerly plantation-based economy has become a predominantly service- and manufacturing-based one. Mauritius has since set its sights on becoming a 'cyber-island', a regional hub for computer-based service provision. In charting this developmental route, the Mauritian state has had recourse to favourable socio-historical conditions. By highlighting these cultural influences on the globalisation of the Mauritian economy, this study affirms the value of analysing new divisions of labour as an aspect of the centuries-old process of globalisation.

The perception of the potential risk arising from human exposure to 50/60 Hz electric and magnetic fields was studied with a quasi‐random sample of 116 well‐educated, opinion leaders using the risk perception framework previously developed by Slovic, Fischhoff, and Lichtenstein. These individuals rated exposure to fields from transmission lines and electric blankets on a variety of scales that have been found useful in characterizing people's risk attitudes and perceptions. These judgments allowed us to conjecture about the likely desire for regulation of these potential hazards and the likely response to a publicized problem (e.g., an accident or ominous research finding) involving these two sources of exposure. Various forms of detailed information about 50/60 Hz fields were supplied to respondents. The provision of information produced modest, but statistically significant, changes in perceptions in the direction of greater concern about the risks. In response to questions of public policy, participants desired modest regulatory control of field exposure from transmission lines and little or no control of field exposure from appliances like electric blankets.