The main objective of this book is to present the results of our comparative research on industrial relocation and its impact on the basic social processes that permit the production and reproduction of industrial spheres shaped by globalization in a border context: specifically, the northern borders of Morocco and Mexico being the empirical references.
Since the 1960s, many foreign firms have established subsidiaries in Mexico and, beginning in the 1980s, a similar process has occurred in Morocco. Their aim has been to improve production, including assemblage, manufacturing and, in some cases, product design, in sectors as wide-ranging as clothing, textiles, electronics, automotive and food. This process of firm relocation has resulted in continual changes to the social space where it has taken place, leading to tensions and conflicts. There are many similarities in what has happened between Mexico and Morocco, as the following research projects have revealed: “Reconstruir el campo de las regiones no fronterizas en la relocalización industrial y la migración” [Reconstructing the countryside in non-border regions in industrial relocation and migration] (CSO 2013-140646-P), under the national research plan of Spain’s Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competition; and “Relocalización industrial e inmigración: el papel de la industria exportadora en los países de origen (Marruecos y México)” [Industrial relocation and immigration: the role of export industry in the countries of origin (Morocco and Mexico)], under the national research plan of Spain’s Ministry of Science and Innovation (CSO 2010-16112).
We choose both border regions for several reasons. First of all, both regions are in a similar position in the global restructuring process. The governments of these countries have followed a development model with similar characteristics: Industrial relocation has transformed both regions into urban migration centers, aimed at attaining a successful product, and whose main characteristics are defined by: (1) Their being border regions that acts as ports of entry to a place of consumption—the European Union and the United States; (2) A major concentration of transnational companies dedicated to the export of manufactured products and that attracts labour; (3) Precarious labour conditions; (4) Development of infrastructure through ports, airports, railways and highways that reduce the distance between places of production and consumption; (5) Populations that are demographically diverse (minority ethnic groups), young (younger than the national average), feminized (strong presence of working women) and with lower levels of unemployment than their national averages; (6) Well-established cultures of migration that group both the industry of migration and internal and international autochthonous migrants and migrants from other neighbouring countries who are in transit; and (7) The involvement of government in attracting FDI. Second of all, borderlands have been characterized by deficiencies in their modernization processes and in the democratic transitions that are linked to the modernity project. Finally, many workers decide to leave their place of origin for two main reasons. One is the lack of opportunities offered in rural areas, as their subsistence economies are disrupted by the logic of the global economy. The other is related to the opportunities for improvement offered by the city, without forgetting that migration culture is already very well established. The book is structured in seven additional chapters plus a concluding chapter. Each chapter focuses on specific objectives that permit us to describe and analyze the process of shaping a localized global economy in the context of a border area.
Thus, in Chapter 2 we examine the most important theoretical frameworks and debates related to our proposed objectives, comparing the process of development and the configuration of the export industry established in northern Morocco (Tangier-Tetouan) with that of the maquiladoras on the northern border of Mexico (Tijuana), while also looking at how the global economy becomes localized. In Chapter 3 we discuss the methodological debate over comparative studies and the design of mixed research approaches. Chapter 4 examines the logic of transnational firms in the process described. In Chapter 5 we look at working conditions in the export industries in both border areas. In Chapter 6 we analyze the settlement process in the border cities of Tijuana and Tangier, looking at population growth as well as urban development. In Chapter 7 we compare internal migration from the south and center of Morocco toward the north, as well as external migration to Europe, with migratory processes in the Mexican case.
There are few comparative studies of two such paradigmatic cases as we present here (the Mexican-US border area and the Moroccan–Spanish border area). These cases permit us to understand the social changes that the global economy provokes in what we refer to as “places of production”, or in other words, those places where export industry is established to benefit from the advantageous conditions said places offer. We focus our attention on analyzing the triad of industrial relocation, globalization and development, but without forgetting transnational firms, working conditions, settlement processes and migratory flows.
A comparative perspective permits us to see if a convergence toward a global culture is really taking place, or if on the contrary, local resistance emerges in response to the impact of the global. The study of globalization generally focuses on large-scale macro-sociological processes and tends to ignore the ways in which globalization is localized; this new perspective is the thread which guides this contribution. In what follows we describe in greater detail the content of the seven chapters of this book. Chapter 2, “Globalization as the worldwide context for understanding local dynamics”, by Antonio Trinidad Requena, Francisco Entrena-Durán and Marlene Solís, focuses on explaining the theory emerging via the interpretive analytical process, in accordance with the principles of Grounded Theory, which is followed in the methodological development of the research projects cited above. In our analytical model, we have distinguished between sites of production and sites of consumption, because in the global economic system the transnational firm requires both sites to successfully achieve its ultimate goal: to maximize its results and to minimize its costs. The transnational firm is responsible for seeking what we have called “sites of manufacturing production”, meaning those sites where the export industry settles in order to take advantage of the favorable conditions which these sites offer: geographic location (preference for places bordering sites of consumption); relative political and social stability; development of basic infrastructure, and abundant labor at low cost due to working conditions in both countries.
The two borderlands studied meet the requirements of transnational firms in the Global North for becoming sites of production, having a concentration of manufacturing companies in the north of Mexico and Morocco, with the consequent flow of labor from the south of both countries, as well as linkage with a border economy, particularly in the case of Mexico. This has allowed these two local spaces to enter into the global value chains of the economic system, driven by technological development, the reduction of transportation costs, the liberalization of commerce, the increase of foreign direct investment, and the migration of the population.
However, in addition to these elements, we need to incorporate other explanatory dimensions that allow us to understand how both spaces have been incorporated into the global economic system. In this regard, the theory of a New Economic Geography allows us to analyze the distribution of economic activity in geographical space, expanding our knowledge of trade and the localization of economic activity in a global world, integrating classical approaches to trade with approaches of increasing returns, which explains intra-industrial trade and the localization of economic activity.
Sociology has also shed light on the role of public governance in the development and configuration of the global economy from three points of view. On the one hand are the theories which assign a key role to states, what we will call “state-centrism” and which take a skeptical view of the “newness” of the current era. On the other hand are the hyperglobalists, who argue that globalization has given rise to a new era characterized by the loss of significance of the nation-state in favor of large transnational corporations. Finally, we find the transformationalists, who take an intermediary position between the two previous positions; emphasizing, instead of economic interdependence, the interdependence of institutional and social relations in time and space.
Now, if each of the aforementioned approaches helps us to understand the articulation and development of the global economic system, what happens when it articulates and interacts with the local? This is the key question of our research process, and once the interpretive analytical process finalized, we found that these approaches assign little importance on individual and local actors, focusing their weight on the global economic, political and social structure. For this reason, a more integrative and sociological theory has emerged from the data, which we refer to as the “localized global economic theory” (LGET). This theory explains how globalism interacts and modifies the local across the planet and sketches an analytical framework which allows us to understand both the industrial process of Tijuana, Baja California (Mexico) and that of the region of Tangier-Tetouan (Morocco).
The LGET constructs its own approach to Basic Social Processes (BSP), defining them as dynamic processes of social relations developed by the different social actors involved in the process of industrial relocation of the border region, giving meaning to the action of the subjects that interact between the global and the local (transnational entrepreneurs, political managers, workers in the export industry and local authorities). This new theoretical framework is articulated in the chapter, offering the theoretical coverage necessary so that the rest of the chapters empirically develop each of the proposed dimensions (transnational firms, working conditions, internal migration and the configuration of local space, and international migrations), combining the analysis of structure and agency by means of the LGET, keeping in mind the border situation in which both countries find themselves.
This theoretical approach of the research team, developed from an inductive exercise typical of a Grounded Theory perspective, resonates with recent theoretical debates on borders. In particular, we consider the suggestion of Brunet-Jailly (2005, 2007) about the need to recognize the mutual influence of agency and structure to recreate border regions socially, politically, culturally and economically. To this end, Brunet-Jailly (2005) proposes an analytical model for the study of borders composed of four complementary and interdependent axes: (1) local cultures between borders; (2) local political actors between borders; (3) governance activity at different levels of government; and (4) market forces and trade flows. Although our study is more focused on industrial relocation (including the economic dimension) in the theoretical and descriptive elaboration of the local expression of this globalization process, it seems to us essential to recognize the following: the tensions that arise through interdependence between agency and social structure—as this author suggests; the differences between the borders taking into account the different scales of influence: the local, the regional, the national and the global; considering the PSB as part of the capacity for agency of the social actors involved in our study. Therefore, in the various themes approached in the chapters of the book, the historical context of both territories is integrated, as well as an analysis of institutions and social networks that allows us to account for resources developed at the local level and the manner in which social actors have faced industrial relocation in both border regions. Hence, our initial interest was in asking ourselves about the relationship between industrial relocation and migration processes.
This theoretical proposal (LGET) accounts for the porosity of borders in this historical moment of tension between globalization and policies to reinforce them, showing the differences and similarities between localities that—in both countries—play an exemplary role both as nodes of migration and as territories of production for transnational firms.
Chapter 3, “The suitability of multivariate comparative studies and mixed research designs”, by Rosa M. Soriano Miras, Antonio Trinidad and Kathrine Kopinak, is focused on explaining the research methodology developed to compare the causes and consequences of processes of industrial relocation on border areas in northern Mexico and Morocco. We justify methodological decisions based on population and sample, production techniques and data analysis. This study has been ongoing since 2006 through various research projects, the result of different competitive public calls, the most recent being: Relocalización industrial and migración [Industrial relocation and migration] (CSO 2013-140646-P), financed by the national research plan of Spain’s Ministry of Science and Innovation. The research team includes members from Canada, the United States, Spain, Mexico and Morocco, and has focused attention on four main elements, which make up the backbone of the present study:
- Comparing the process of development and the configuration of the export industry that has been established in northern Morocco (Tangier-Tetouan), with the process in the maquiladoras on the northern border of Mexico (Tijuana), and how the global economy is localized.
- Examining the working conditions in the export industry in both border areas.
- Analyzing internal migration from the south and center to the north of Morocco, and external migration to Europe, comparing this with the case of Mexico, without forgetting settlement processes.
- Assessing whether the passage of workers through the export industry activates or deactivates the process of Moroccan immigration to Europe and Mexican immigration to the United States.
We have chosen a combined qualitative/quantitative methodology with the aim of emphasizing the discursive dimension of the structural reality of the contexts in which the research has been carried out. This strategy has allowed us to analyze both spaces simultaneously, looking for both regularities and singularities in our comparison. However, we only compare those phenomena that are sufficiently analogous in terms of structure and complexity. We compare the two spaces on two levels: First, we carry out a macro-structural comparison to see if there are differences in the process of relocation of export firms in Tangier and Tetouan in Morocco with the process followed by firms in Tijuana in Mexico, highlighting the regularities found in migratory strategies; secondly, we do a micro-structural comparison, comparing the life trajectories of Mexican women and men who have emigrated to the United States with Moroccan women and men who have emigrated to Europe. All of this has been carried out taking into account their employment trajectories in their country of origin (differentiating between those who have passed through the export industry with those who have not).
Our research design is therefore multilevel and multi-situated: with four major phases and seven stages. In the first phase (carried out in Mexico) and the first stage, we carried out a descriptive study at the macro level in which we detailed the sociopolitical context and the establishment and subsequent development of maquiladoras in Tijuana. In the second stage, we carried out an analytical-interpretive study that focused on the micro dimension; that is, on workers in the maquiladora industry in Mexico, analyzing secondary sources, the relevant literature and carrying out in-depth interviews regarding workers’ life trajectories, working conditions and migratory strategies associated with their life paths as Mexican immigrants in the United States.
In the second phase (carried out in the United States), which corresponds to the third stage in our research, we carried out in-depth interviews with Mexican immigrants, looking for a balanced sample between those who had previous employment experience in the maquiladora industry in Mexico and those who did not, with the aim of verifying if there were differences in their migratory and employment trajectories.
In the third phase (carried out in Morocco) and the fourth stage, we began a phase of socio-historical reconstruction of the Tangier-Tetouan region through analyzing secondary sources, with particular emphasis on the relocation of export industries in this area. The aim was to detail the sociopolitical context and trade relations between Morocco, Spain and Europe. In the fifth stage, we interviewed ...