Transnational Migration

We see a big problem with migration all around the world.  Around 200 million people around the world live outside of their home countries for at least a year.  Many people migrate to find better working conditions and higher paid jobs as well as a better life for their families.  We see many people coming to the U.S especially because of the so called "American Dream".  What many people don't know is they are still treated unfairly. Migration has been happening ever since people arrived on this planet whether it be the Vikings sailing across the sea or the slave trade of africans brought from West Africa to the U.S.

International migrants who come into the U.S are apart of the $60 billion brought in by big name U.S companies.  Richer countries bringing in these migrant workers are making more money than ever before, hence the title "The Rich Get Richer".  This doesn't effect everyone in a good way, even though poorer countries where the migrants come from are getting more money from the migrants who are making money in the more developed countries, it is still leaving people without homes.  Usually the poorer countries tend to spend their money on building schools, which isn't a bad thing, but people are still left without homes.

Climate change is a big risk factor to migration and our planet.  Global warming and climate change will force people of warmer nations to move out into less warm countries creating overpopulation. The warmer countries will soon be too warm to live in, but there really isn't enough space for other people living in those countries to all move to different places around the world.  "It is difficult to predict whether the movement will mainly be internal or cross-border, or temporary or permanent."(Eitzen and Zinn, 51)  No matter where people go there will always be a conflict whether people want them in their country, if there is room, or enough resources to support that many people.

The reading that I found most interesting was in the E and Z chapter called "Bound for discussion"  It talks about a man named Intajak who is trying to make more money for his family back home.  Intajak is a migrant worker who is told he has to pay $11,700 upfront for him to work.  who pays to work?  He is offered a job in the U.S where he was told he be able to work steady hours for 3 years and would be given enough money to support his family.  Intajak began to realize that the contract he had signed back in Bangkok guaranteed nothing like three years of steady employment.  Rather, he was eligible to work as many hours as global saw fit to give him, for up to three years- as long as Global chose to renew his visa." (Eitzen and Zinn, 60)  this shows the hard working conditions U.S companies put migrants in and how it effects people around the world.  We tend to not think about others across the world and only want to benefit ourselves.  Realizing the hard conditions that the U.S is putting migrant workers in should show that it isn't right for people to be mis treated.  We need to make this a bigger deal to stop companies who are underpaying their workers and not giving them the same working conditions that U.S citizens have.

A sweatshop is a place that has poor unacceptable working conditions.  Sweatshops are found all around the world.  People working in these sweatshops are often paid very low wages and work in bad conditions.  Workers in sweatshops are treated more like slaves than employees because they force them to work long hours and even harass the workers.  Most of the the workers in these sweatshops consist of children and women and women are frequently sexually harassed.

Many big name corporations use sweatshops because it helps them make money without having to pay workers normal wages for making the companies clothes.  Why do companies always feel the need to make more money even if it makes other people suffer?  Some of my favorite companies use sweatshops to make their clothing and I don't agree with it whatsoever.  One thing we can do as costumers is stop buying the product, but that can only go so far.  We as people find the need to always get the best things including clothes because we want to fit in and wear what we think is cool. Only up until a couple years ago did I realize that sweatshops were a thing.

The video I was shown in class was a real life example of a sweatshop in Bangladesh where at the beginning a man stood outside reporting the terrible conditions that these workers have to deal with.  They work anywhere from 14-20 hours a day in a hot building with men surrounding and supervising them making sure they are doing the right thing.  If they don't complete the amount of pockets or buttons that they have to sew onto a piece of clothing in a certain amount of time they are abused.  I never could imagine a working environment like this.  A good quote i liked from the video was "do we ever stop to imagine the human face behind the label?"  (The Hidden Face of Globalization)  I never have stopped to think of this concept and I think others look past it as well, but when you do truly think about the face and the harsh conditions these people are put in it really brings up a point that no one deserves to live like this.  Workers in these factories have to work to be able to make just enough money to barely get by.  They work such long shifts to where they only get a couple hours of sleep a day sometimes only resting their heads on machines is the best sleep they can get.  People are always subject to making more money and will do whatever they have to in order to get as much as they can.  Making other people suffer is inhumane and it needs to stop because everyone deserves to be treated equal.

The biggest problem for me is that people aren't being treated equal and other people don't even care enough to help out.  Bigger companies won't stop these brutal sweatshops that bring women and children pain all because they want more money.  If they just switched the jobs of making clothes to the US paying minimum wage, then more job opportunities would appear and less people would be homeless.