Maquillas Case Neg
Notes
If more people decide to read this aff, I would revisit a Mexican border economy DA.
If you go for the CP, also go for maquilla conditions relatively good and frame it as the CP doesn’t have to drastically
improve conditions if they’re not that bad now
-Politics and Mexican Economy are possible Net Benefits, along with any of the patriarchy case turns
Maquilas Contention
1NC Maquiladoras
1. Can’t solve patriarchy—they only provide uq for ag jobs which only men would get
2. Guest worker visas are hijacked for sex trafficking, best case the same conditions as maquillas
Costa 12 – Director of Immigration Law and Policy Research, Economic Policy Institute (Daniel, 12/24/2012, “Litigation
reveals extensive abuse of guest workers in the U.S.,” http://www.epi.org/blog/litigation-extensive-abuse-us-guestworkers/#sthash.omWBCdfH.dpuf)
As International Migrants Day passes and 2012 comes to a close, it’s a good time to reflect on a number of impressive
victories guest workers won this year against employers who exploited, abused, trafficked and robbed them. Although
these legal battles have been inspiring, most employer abuses of guest worker programs and guest workers
themselves occur with impunity. Even when guest workers have their day in court, the victories are sometimes just
moral ones and the victims are not made whole financially. Overall, the guest worker issues litigated in American courts
this year are somber reminders that many employers are using these programs to erode labor standards. The
employer abuses that have been exposed and confirmed through court proceedings—and the judgments that vindicated
foreign guest workers in 2012—occurred across visa categories and skill levels. The following are some examples: On
Dec. 17, a federal jury in California awarded a group of 350 Filipino teachers $4.5 million in damages for the economic
exploitation they suffered at the hands of their labor recruiter. The teachers came to the United States through the H-1B
visa program for college-educated workers, and according to the American Federation of Teachers, the Filipino teachers
paid their recruiter “about $16,000—several times the average household income in the Philippines—to obtain their
jobs.” They also paid “3 to 5 percent interest per month” to lenders in order to pay off the fee, and “were forced to sign
away an additional 10 percent of the salaries they would earn during their second year of teaching.” If they complained,
they were threatened with deportation and liability for the debts incurred without a chance to earn any of it back. In
July, a shocking New York Times editorial, “Forced Labor on American Shores,” described how guest workers brought to
Louisiana through the H-2B program (for workers in non-agricultural occupations and without a college degree) were
subjected to slave-like employment conditions. Thanks to the work of the National Guestworker Alliance, C.J.’s
Seafood—the company at fault and one of Walmart’s seafood suppliers in Louisiana—was suspended by Walmart and
fined a total of $248,000 by the Department of Labor (DOL). The fines were for a combination of 12 violations of
“exposing workers to blocked exit, fire, electrical and chemical hazards,” and for failing “to pay minimum wage and
overtime compensation to 73 workers as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act,” and for failing to comply with other
H-2B program rules. Last month, in a negotiated settlement, three companies that cooperated to take advantage of
more than 1,000 foreign student workers on J-1 visas working at a Hershey Co. plant in Pennsylvania agreed to
compensate the workers for a total of $213,000 in back pay. Two of the companies were also fined a total of $148,000
by DOL and one of them agreed “to take steps to ensure compliance with federal workplace rules at its more than 300
other facilities across the country.” The student workers came to the United States through the State Department’s J-1
Exchange Visitor Program, which aims to facilitate a cultural and educational exchange in the United States for young
people from abroad. In 2011, EPI revealed in detail how over several decades the J-1 program has morphed into a guest
worker program that provides employers with hundreds of thousands of exploitable, captive and underpaid young
workers. Later that year, the J-1 workers at Hershey garnered national attention on the front page of the New York
Times after going on strike to protest their conditions. The three companies involved—Exel, SHS, and the Council for
Educational Travel USA (CETUSA)—acted as layers of subcontractors working on behalf of Hershey’s, and this
employment scheme ultimately insulated the Hershey Co. from liability for the harm suffered by the workers for
Hershey’s benefit. In what is likely to be the largest sum ever awarded to guest workers in the United States, the
Southern Poverty Law Center won a judgment of $11.8 million in October against Eller & Sons Trees, Inc., a forestry
contractor in Georgia which cheated 4,000 Guatemalan and Mexican H-2B workers out of wages they were owed for
planting trees. The employer failed to pay the H-2B workers the appropriate prevailing wage or even the federal
minimum wage, violating the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act
“multiple times.” One of the plaintiffs in the case said the workers’ pay “would come out to approximately $25 for a 12hour workday.” A federal criminal prosecution did not result in a monetary judgment for guest worker plaintiffs, but is
worth noting because it serves as a chilling example of just how out of control and unregulated U.S. guest worker
programs are: The Chicago Sun Times reported last month on the conviction and life sentence of a Cook County man
who “beat, degraded and terrorized,” and forced undocumented and guest worker immigrant women into
prostitution. The “sex-trafficking by force and extortion” the man was convicted of was facilitated in part through a
labor recruitment company (technically called a “sponsor”) that processes the issuance of J-1 visas for those coming
from abroad to work as au pairs. The judge in the case “questioned the actions of the au pair agency ‘Au Pair in
America,’ which helped the women get their visas to come to the U.S. from Eastern Europe, then abandoned them.”
Although few additional details about this case are yet available, it is telling that the judge took Au Pair in America to
task publicly during the sentencing hearing. All of these cases are depressing reminders of just how unregulated and
unsafe U.S. guest worker programs are for the immigrant workers who participate in them. Although immigrant worker
advocates can rightly feel buoyed by the significant sums awarded by courts to guest workers this year, the examples
above are the tip of an iceberg of severe and systemic abuse that will persist into 2013 and beyond. Thus, they also
serve as a lesson that any comprehensive solution for our immigration system must include major reforms and
improvements to how guest worker programs operate, so that guest workers are not victimized and robbed by their
employers, recruiters and traffickers, or used by employers to degrade wages and workplace standards for U.S. workers.
The desires of employers and pundits who advocate for expanding these malfunctioning programs in their current
state—often because they benefit from them directly—should not be catered to.
3. Can’t solve patriarchy in Mexico—maquillas are the only available jobs for women, the plan destroys the industry
and makes things worse for the majority of women who can’t emigrate
4. Immigration processing results in rape and violent discrimination
Andrijasevic 09 – Professor, Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS), Open University (Rutvica, “Sex on
the move: Gender, subjectivity and differential inclusion,” http://www.palgravejournals.com/sub/journal/v29/n1/full/sub200927a.html)
Young single women's migration is subject to immigration regulations that enforce norms around gender and
sexuality. In particular, border has been identified as a key site where control is played out. In the 1960s, the border
officers monitoring the US-Mexican border refused to admit lesbians, namely those who they identified as being ‘too’
masculine in manner, dress and look (Luibhéid, 2002). The control at the border is often enforced though violence.
Young migrant women working in export assembly plants or maquiladoras at the US-Mexican border have been affected
by high levels of violence and abuse. The social movement called Ni Una Mas (Not One More) brought to the public
attention the deaths of hundreds of young women who migrated autonomously from rural Mexico to work in
maquiladoras. These deaths, initially dismissed by the local authorities as simply being those of prostitutes against
whom the use of violence is implicitly justified, need to be seen in relation to the economy of the export processing
zones in the border region. Factories are run on the basis of flexible labour employment and give priority to hiring young
women migrants who lack family support. Additionally, women are pressured against political organising and are
excluded from traditional unions led by men who dismiss women on the basis that they are temporary workers and
bring down the level of wages. Women's vulnerability to abuse in the border regions thus needs to be examined in
relation to the labour exploitation in the export-oriented zones, women's labour participation away from the domestic
sphere and their increased role as independent migrants (Nash, 2006; Wright, 2006). Sexual violence is also used
systematically against migrant women crossing the border between Mexico and the United States. Agents of the US
Border Control have been known to rape, detain and then release migrant women caught crossing the US-Mexican
border illegally. Although not directly expelling a woman migrant from the US, sexual abuse nevertheless constitutes an
act of exclusion as it operates as a technology that reproduces gender and sexual hierarchies and norms on the one
hand and racial and class divisions on the other. Rape effectively inscribes the border on migrant women's bodies. This
border is at the same time an external border that sanctions and maintains the difference between ‘us’ and ‘them’,
‘citizens’ and ‘aliens’, and is also an internal border that confines undocumented migrant women to the low-end
service sector of the US economy. Rape thus plays a crucial role in reconstructing national borders and in upholding
the exclusionary social order (Luibhéid, 2002, p. 130).
5. Conditions in maquillas are comparatively better—
a) Worker interviews prove
Sargent and Matthews 99 – John D. Sargent: Assistant professor of Management and International Business at Florida
International University; extensive fieldwork experience in Mexico on the maquiladora industry and multinational firms.
Linda M. Matthews: Ph.D. candidate in organizational behavior and human resource management at the School of
Business Administration at the University of Washington. (Jan. 1999, “Exploitation or Choice? Exploring the Relative
Attractiveness of Employment in the Maquiladoras,” http://www.jstor.org/stable/25074047?origin=JSTOR-pdf)
Discussion and conclusion The majority of maquila workers interviewed for this study indicated that they worked in a
maquila due to the availability of maquila employment. Also, the majority of people that had worked in jobs outside
the maquila industry considered their maquila jobs more attractive even though they might be receiving less in
direct compensation. The majority of maquila workers also planned to continue working in the maquilas. A minority
of workers indicated that they felt they had the opportunity, if they wanted, to find employment outside the maquila
industry. This group frequently indicated that they worked in a maquila for such reasons as the work was easier, they
liked working indoors, there were more advancement opportunities when working in a maquila than in many non
maquila jobs, there were more social opportunities, and that there was more time off. We recognize that the relatively
small sample of 59 primarily male maquila workers may limit the generalizability of our findings. However, given the
goals of the study and the requirements of the research methodology we felt it was more useful to conduct a relatively
limited number of in-depth interviews instead of attempting to maximize sample size. While our sample was
composed primarily of men, this was not deliberate. Using our door to door sampling methodology, we simply found
more men than women to interview. It may also be possible that the maquila workers interviewed systematically
biased their answers either for or against the attractiveness of maquila employment. While possible, we went to great
lengths to reduce the possibility of systematic distortions. We conducted the great majority of the interviews away
from the workplace in order to avoid the perception that we were somehow associated with maquila management, we
promised that their responses would be completely confidential and anonymous, and we only asked "neutral"
questions such as "Why did you decide to obtain a job in the maquilas?" and "How does your job compare with the
jobs that your friends and family have?" so as to not suggest that we were either for or against the maquiladoras.
Clearly, further studies using different samples and methodologies are warranted to replicate and extend our results.
The statements made by maquila workers suggest that the charges of widespread worker exploitation in the
maquilas appear somewhat exaggerated. If the standard used to evaluate maquila jobs are comparisons to the local
labor market, maquilas appear to offer comparable or slightly more attractive employment than indigenous firms.
However, an additional consideration is warranted before the conclusion is drawn that jobs in the industry are
attractive. Mexico, like any country, has a lower, middle, and upper class. As the information on the work history of
maquila workers clearly demonstrates, the great majority of maquila workers come from lower class backgrounds.
People who have worked in such occupations as a laborer in construction, on a farm, or as a maid are probably the only
group that would consider an entry level maquila job as attractive. In fact, the sections of the Cd. Juarez and Cd.
Chihuahua with the highest concentrations of maquila workers are also among the poorest areas of those two cities. A
comparison to the labor market in the U.S. may help place the attractiveness of the typical maquila job in
perspective in the Mexican economy. Considering the entire employment spectrum in the two countries, maquila
jobs appear roughly equal in attractiveness to lower level service jobs in a convenience stores or fast food
restaurants in the U.S. Both jobs typically pay the minimum wage in their respective countries, both attract either
younger people looking for a temporary job while they are working towards something more attractive and/or
people with limited social and economic mobility. The majority of people in the U.S. do not view a job in McDonald's
as attractive; similarly the majority of people in the overall labor market in Northern Mexico do not view a job on the
shop floor of a maquila as attractive. In short, maquila work is like a job at McDonald's; ideally a temporary stop on
the way to something better. In Hosmer and Masten (1995), Hosmer wrote that the people who suffer the most due
to the maquilas are "the least amongst us: those with least income, least education, least influence, least ability to
look after their own self-interest" (1995, p. 290). In contrast, our study discovered just the opposite. We found that
young, unskilled men and women with lower class backgrounds were the group of maquila employees most likely
to benefit from maquila employment. When a person's immediate options consisted of either unemployment or
working as an unskilled laborer, an entry level maquila job often represented a step up. In our view, it was only when
a person had graduated a level or two above the "least amongst us" that maquila employment began to resemble an
exploitative relationship. There are a significant number of attractive technical and administrative positions in the
maquilas and these jobs should not be forgotten. However, in our view the true ethical dilemma created by the
maquilas may not be whether they provide attractive employment but instead whether or not it is appropriate for a
multinational to provide attractive employment for lower class workers in a developing country. In this context, a multi
national providing an attractive job for a person struggling to survive at the bottom rung of the social and economic
ladder may be a greater contribution to that country's development than one that provides an attractive job to a
middle class bureaucrat. In our view, to state otherwise suggests a middle or upper class favoritism and a denial of
the importance of the needs of the lower classes in developing countries. Hopefully, the entry level jobs like those
offered by the maquiladora industry will not be necessary in the future as Mexico continues to develop
economically. Unfortunately, today's reality indicates that maquila employment can play a productive role for lower
class segments of the Mexican population.
b) Only our studies eliminate ideological bias—prefer worker interviews
Sargent and Matthews 99 – John D. Sargent: Assistant professor of Management and International Business at Florida
International University; extensive fieldwork experience in Mexico on the maquiladora industry and multinational firms.
Linda M. Matthews: Ph.D. candidate in organizational behavior and human resource management at the School of
Business Administration at the University of Washington. (Jan. 1999, “Exploitation or Choice? Exploring the Relative
Attractiveness of Employment in the Maquiladoras,” http://www.jstor.org/stable/25074047?origin=JSTOR-pdf)
Determining what constitutes ethical behavior in complex situations in a single culture is often difficult. When a firm
expands into multiple cultures in both the industrialized and developing worlds, the challenge to determine what is
ethical behavior becomes even more complex. De George (1993) identified three common, but misguided
approaches to use in evaluating the ethical behavior of multinational firms. He labels these; 1) When in Rome do as
the Romans do; 2) the Righteous American, and 3) the Naive Immoralist. The "When in Rome" position implies that
a U.S. firm should follow the local customs and practices of the country where they are doing business. In the maquila
context, this standard implies that as long as the maquilas have comparable benefits and working conditions to local
firms, they are operating in an ethically defensible way. In contrast, the Righteous American view holds that U.S. firms
should be held to the same standards of conduct that apply in the U.S. For maquiladoras, this standard would imply
that they should offer the same wages and working conditions in both the U.S. and Mexico. Finally, the Naive
Immoralist position is that global competition creates its own ethical and economic reality. If a U.S. firm adopted
ethical practices that undermined their competitive position, they would lose business and the entire U.S. economy
could suffer. If a maquila followed this position, a logical policy would be that the maquilas exist to maximize their
profits and that they should pay their workers whatever they decide is appropriate. Each of these approaches, when
taken to the extreme, has clear weaknesses. The "When in Rome" position implies that there are no uni versal ethical
principals and that whatever is acceptable in the host country is acceptable behavior for the U.S. firm. However, few
people would agree that it is acceptable for a U.S. multi national to practice slavery or apartheid even if these practices
are common in the host country. The Righteous American position implies that U.S. ethical values are superior than the
values of other cultures. De George writes that "it is simple arrogance to assume that American ways of acting are the
only morally correct or per missible ways of conducting business" (1993, p. 17). The Naive Immoralist view is also
problematic. This position implies that if your competitor is doing something, it is acceptable for you to do the same
thing. Clearly, just because somebody is doing something (for example, selling illegal drugs to minors), does not make
it ethical for you to do the same thing. Given the weaknesses of the three above mentioned positions, both De George
(1993) and Donaldson (1989) developed alternative frame works for determining what is acceptable multinational
behavior. Both focused extensively on multinationals operating in developing countries where background
institutions (typically govern ment rule setting and oversight bodies) are weak. De George (1993) focuses on what he
termed seven ethical norms for multinationals in devel oping countries. Donaldson (1989) identified ten fundamental
international rights and the minimal duties for multinationals. Both authors state that multinational firms have the duty
to pay their workers at least subsistence wages. De George writes that "American companies must pay at least
subsistence wages and enough above that level to allow workers and their families to live decently" (1993, p. 51).
While this appears to be just standard, subsistence wages and a decent living are both inexact terms and using this
standard to pinpoint appropriate wage levels is difficult. Donaldson (1989), in contrast, emphasizes that defining what
constitutes subsistence wages is "an empirical question." If wages are so low that workers and their families face
malnutrition and starvation, multinational firms are not meeting their minimal duties of the right to subsistence. If we
use Donaldson's standard of minimal duties, the average maquila firm clearly meets its fundamental moral
obligations. Many maquila firms not only pay at least the Mexican minimum wage but offer to their employees such
benefits as free food in the company cafeteria and free medical care (Teagarden, Butler and Von Glinow, 1992). A
focus on the issue of subsistence wages, however, tends to ignore the fact that all developing countries are not the
same. Mexico, for example, is regarded by the United Nations as an advanced developing nation with relatively high
levels of education, industrialization, and national income (Human Development Report, 1995). Over 20 million
Mexicans enjoy a living standard roughly equal to or above that of the middle class in the United States. A U.S. multi
national that pays a subsistence wage in an advanced developing nation may not be con tributing to its development.
Given these difficulties in determining what is ethical behavior for maquiladora firms, in this paper we adopt a
relative attractiveness standard to evaluate maquiladora employment. We believe that the people within the
Mexican labor market are capable of deciding whether or not they are being exploited. Given the harsh realities of
developing countries, what people in the industrialized world believe to be an unjust employment relationship may
be judged favorably by a developing country worker. Also, attractive employment can be viewed as a relative
concept. Maquila jobs should be evaluated against other employment opportunities in the local labor market.
Clearly, the relative attractiveness standard is closely related to the "When in Rome, do as the Roman's do" ethical
approach. While this ethical standard has weaknesses, we view the relative attractiveness framework and this study as
a helpful addition to the debate focusing on the maquila industry, NAFTA, and increased economic ties between the
U.S. and Mexico. In our own review of the literature on the maquila industry conducted prior to this study, we found
that there was an absence of published articles that examined the attractiveness of maquila work in comparison to
other employment opportunities from a workers perspective. While there were some published studies, this
information was problematic. A significant portion of the literature on the industry is both somewhat dated and
written from a Marxist perspective (cf. Fernandez-Kelly, 1983; Van Waas, 1981). Since Marxist scholars are typically
critical of any type of capitalistic organization, it should come as little surprise that these authors are critical of the
maquila industry and maquila employment. Ideological biases clouding research findings are a well recognized
problem in maquila research (Stoddard, 1991; Pena, 1991; Carrillo, 1991). A second serious problem is that, due to the
lack of relevant academic studies, researchers focusing on the maquilas have had to turn to popular press sources
for information on maquila working conditions. Both Hosmer and Masten (1995) and Butler and Teagarden (1993),
for example, cited popular press sources (e.g. San Jose Mercury News, U.S. News and World Report) when reporting
worker attitudes and safety conditions in the maquilas. While these sources are certainly helpful, few academicians
would argue that these sources are sufficient to adequately inform both the scientific community and public
opinion. Given these characteristics of maquila research, we conducted a study with the goal of examining the
relative attractiveness of maquila employment from the perspective of maquila line and technical workers. We
selected our methodology with the goal of presenting as directly as possible the views of maquila workers while
still using rigorous scientific methods. The next section of this paper presents this research methodology.
c) Indirect benefits make maquilla jobs best
Sargent and Matthews 99 – John D. Sargent: Assistant professor of Management and International Business at Florida
International University; extensive fieldwork experience in Mexico on the maquiladora industry and multinational firms.
Linda M. Matthews: Ph.D. candidate in organizational behavior and human resource management at the School of
Business Administration at the University of Washington. (Jan. 1999, “Exploitation or Choice? Exploring the Relative
Attractiveness of Employment in the Maquiladoras,” http://www.jstor.org/stable/25074047?origin=JSTOR-pdf)
The majority of maquila managers indicated that the direct wages paid to workers were equal to, but not above, the
wages paid by other local employers. These managers frequently stated that the wages for unskilled production level
employees were set by federal minimum wage laws. These laws have established roughly the same pay rates for
maquila employment and for other jobs the typical maquila worker could find. While maquila managers did appear
to have some flexibility to increase wages once an employee had been in the organization for a month or two, they
were not openly competing with other firms for workers by raising starting wages. The majority of the managers
stated that the indirect benefits the maquilas offered were much better than what was available in the local non
maquila economy. Benefits mentioned included productivity bonuses, free food at plant cafeterias, educational
opportunities, on-site medical staff, medical insurance, a clean environment, and advancement opportunities. A
small number of the maquila managers indicated that maquilas were attractive due to their stability and that they
complied with their legal obligations as determined by Mexican labor law. One manager characterized many Mexican
businesses as small, undercapitalized firms that commonly "fold and screw the employee." Another human resource
director who had considerable experience in Mexican firms stated that Mexican companies often try to get away
with not paying legally required benefits. This person stated that many small firms have problems meeting payroll
expenses and do not have the ability, or in some cases the desire, to meet their legal obligations. She even went so far
as to state that the maquilas are attracting migration flows because they follow through with what they promise to
their employees. Another common reason given by maquila management was that people found jobs at maquilas
because they employ people who do not have other opportunities for formal employment. Many maquila workers
had only completed their primary education. Maquila managers stated that non-maquila employers usually require
that a person has completed their secondary education to be considered for anything above unskilled labor positions.
2NC Conditions Good
Group the conditions good/bad debate—
Framing question, only our evidence is based on the opinions of the workers themselves, prefer this to eliminate
biases
Sargent and Matthews 99 – John D. Sargent: Assistant professor of Management and International Business at Florida
International University; extensive fieldwork experience in Mexico on the maquiladora industry and multinational firms.
Linda M. Matthews: Ph.D. candidate in organizational behavior and human resource management at the School of
Business Administration at the University of Washington. (Jan. 1999, “Exploitation or Choice? Exploring the Relative
Attractiveness of Employment in the Maquiladoras,” http://www.jstor.org/stable/25074047?origin=JSTOR-pdf)
Is the employment relationship in these maquiladora plants truly exploitative? Given that such firms as General
Motors, Ford, GE, Johnson and Johnson, and a host of other well-known U.S., European, and Japanese multinationals
have maquiladora operations, this is a non-trivial question. As of September, 1995, maquiladora firms employed over
620,000 people and employment is increasing at an explosive rate (9.3 percent in the first nine months of 1995)
(INEGI, 1995). If employment in these firms is truly as horrible as the critics contend, it would appear that some of the
best known firms in the world are not operating in the developing world in a socially responsible manner. A variety of
frameworks have been developed to help determine the moral rights and responsibilities of multinational companies
to their workers in developing countries. Drawing from the emerging field of international business ethics, in this
paper we utilize a relative attractiveness framework to evaluate the ethics of maquila employment. This framework
has two major components. First, we believe maquiladora employees are capable of determining whether or not
they are being exploited by their employer. We feel that in the debate over the attractiveness of maquila jobs the
attitudes and opinions of actual maquiladora workers have been largely overlooked, distorted, or downplayed. This
study attempts to present as clearly as possible the views of this group. Second, we believe that other
opportunities in the local labor market provide a valid measure of comparison to determine the attractiveness of
maquila employment. For example, if a maquila job provides more direct and indirect benefits to a worker than a
non maquila job available in the local area, then maquila employment is, at least in a limited sense, ethically
defensible. The next section briefly reviews a limited selection of the international business ethics literature that
addresses the question of what are the appropriate ethical standards for multinational employers to follow in
developing countries. These standards provide insight into the dilemmas involved in judging the quality of maquila
employment from an ethical viewpoint and provide a linkage between the international business ethics literature and
the current study.
Speaking for others only strengthens nationalism—that dooms any chance for change and is a reason why they’re
liars
Spanos, Masters @ Dartmouth & son of the other Spanos, 2005
(Adam, Strategy and Event: The Politics of Anticolonialism, pg. 161-3)
Nevertheless, Adorno makes an important point to which we should attend: Westerners who become disgruntled with their own civilization
and with the regime of modernity often glorify an outsider, but one whom they carefully select for his/her sameness
in certain key respects, namely rationality, commitment to the Western empirical mode, and appreciation for some of the Western canonical writings. In so
elevating this non-Westerner to the position of warden of global liberty, these disgruntled Westerners enable the
other to criticize them, thereby tantalizing their own liberal guilt fetish.223 But this enabling is limited to serving that
particular desire and does not constitute an emancipation. Although a certain agency is passed to the other, the act of passing on the agency
constitutes an evincing of agency itself. Thus the emplacement of the other on the stage from whence they may make their
critique constitutes a strategic deployment of the other to fulfill the needs of the liberalist ideology informing the
gesture. The other is made to ventriloquise that which the liberal Westerner cannot say, and so is reduced to the
status of a subaltern trapped underneath the affect structure of a liberalism that is, finally, unwilling to grant this
other any room to maneuver. The other can only mutter back to the Westerner what he secretly desires to hear. The lesson of this excursion is that we
must be wary of any Western movement that seeks to accommodate outside resistance as the basis of a program for
its own emancipation. The problem is not so much the fact that emancipation is B process of selfactualization and must therefore emanate from the one
who seeks to be emancipated; in my mind, the possibility for self-actualization in our inextricably intertwined social field must involve efforts to help the other
actualize and emancipate him or herself Rather what troubles me about such a scheme are the various ideologies informing Western attitudes toward the
relationships forged between selves, which collectively comprise an attitude that belongs to a long tradition of effacing, silencing, and generally doing violence to the
other. Until the West can make a loving relationship toward the other a common sense position among its people, it cannot hope to engage Third World movements
in anything but a utilitarian and reductive fashion. Thus far, the
belief of Western radicals in Third World movements has been for all
the wrong reasons, and so this belief has served to harden all of the worst tendencies within these movements,
including an anti-liberationist theology, nationalism, and charismatic dictatorships.
There are no better jobs for maquilla workers
Sargent and Matthews 99 – John D. Sargent: Assistant professor of Management and International Business at Florida
International University; extensive fieldwork experience in Mexico on the maquiladora industry and multinational firms.
Linda M. Matthews: Ph.D. candidate in organizational behavior and human resource management at the School of
Business Administration at the University of Washington. (Jan. 1999, “Exploitation or Choice? Exploring the Relative
Attractiveness of Employment in the Maquiladoras,” http://www.jstor.org/stable/25074047?origin=JSTOR-pdf)
A critical issue in determining the attractiveness of maquila work is to determine why people seek out and accept
maquila employment. Proponents of the view that maquila workers are being exploited argue that maquila jobs are
so unattractive that only young people with no skills and no other opportunities in the local non-maquila labor market
will take maquila jobs (Homer and Masten, 1995). Maquila advocates reply that maquila jobs are more attractive than
other opportunities in the local economy and the maquilas offer above average wages, benefits, and working
conditions. To determine why individuals were working in the maquilas, we asked the question: Why did you decide to
obtain a job in the maquilas? Forty-seven line workers provided usable information to this question. Many workers
indicated multiple reasons why they had a maquila job and so a single response could have been included in more
than one coding category. Exhibit I contains a representative selection of responses to this question. The content
analysis of this question produced the following results. Seventy-four percent (35 people) of the line workers indicated
that they were working in the maquilas due to the availability of maquila employment. Typical responses in this
category indicated that the person needed to work and that maquila employment was easy to obtain. Others indicated
that due to their lack of education maquila employment was the most viable option. In addition, some workers
lamented about the lack of attractive opportunities in non-maquila jobs. Fifteen percent (7 people) stated that they
worked in a maquila due to the indirect benefits given by the maquilas. Three people specifically mentioned the
availability of medical insurance. Thirteen percent (6 people) indicated that they had a job in the maquilas because
of maquila working conditions. This group was largely made up of men who saw their only other option as being in
construction and did not want to work outside during cold winters and hot summers. Thirty percent (14 people) of
those responding indicated that they chose maquila employment because of maquila policies. Typically responses in
this category were people that stated that there is more time off in the maquilas, especially on Saturday and Sunday,
and they liked to have this free time for non-work activities. While one person said they used this time to find a
second job, a much more common response was that maquila employees used the days off for entertainment
purposes. One other notable finding from the interviews was that several of the interviewees stated that they would
receive greater take home pay in non-maquila employment. The statements made by the technicians for why they had
maquila jobs were very similar to those from line workers. Six of the eight technicians stated that they worked in a
maquila because it was possible to find a job in the industry. Technicians frequently indicated that there were few
opportunities for them in non maquila firms. None of the technicians indicated that maquila indirect benefits were the
primary reason why they were working in a maquila. One technician indicated that he liked working in a maquila due
to maquila working conditions while two others stated they worked in a maquila due to attractive maquila policies.
Taken as a whole, the explanations given by maquila workers for why they had maquila jobs provides no strong
evidence one way or the other that maquila jobs are more attractive than non maquila employment. The majority
indicated that they worked in a maquilas because maquila jobs were available. This appeared to be especially true for
skilled technicians. This group indicated that there were few outlets for their efforts in local non-maquila firms. While
common maquila policies do appear to be somewhat more attractive (more time off, free food and transportation,
sports teams, etc.) than many non-maquila jobs, many maquila workers appeared to feel a bit ambiguous about their
jobs. No one, for example, said that they worked where they did because they liked to assemble auto harnesses,
electronic components, or to sew clothing. Intrinsic satisfaction with the actual work per formed appeared to be an
alien concept to the great majority of maquila line and technical workers. Comparison of maquila jobs and a person's
prior employment Another approach to determine the attractiveness of maquila employment was to compare a
person's maquila job with non-maquila employment in the person's past. If maquila work is more attractive than
other local opportunities, it would seem likely that people would be leaving non-maquila jobs and finding work in the
maquila sector. To make this comparison, maquila workers were asked the question: What kinds of jobs have you had
in the past? Once a person's employment history was established, he or she was asked: How do those jobs compare to
your current job? Exhibit II and III contain a selection of representative responses to the first and second questions
respectively. The content analysis of the first question found that prior employment of maquila line workers was
concentrated in general labor (46 percent, 23 of 50) and service jobs (30 percent, 15 of 50). People who had held
general labor jobs had typically worked in agriculture and/or construction while service jobs were in hotels or
restaurants. Five people (10 percent) reported having some experience in manufacturing or mining. Only one person
(2 percent) had held a job with managerial responsibilities. Sixteen people (32 percent) reported that they had only
worked in maquilas. For the line worker sample who provided usable information for this question, 65 percent of the
women (11 of 17) indicated that they had only worked in the maquilas while only 15 percent of the men (5 of 33) fell
in this category. The majority of technicians (five of eight) also did not have experience outside the maquila industry.
Three of the technicians had held general labor jobs before their maquila employment. If a person had held a nonmaquila job in the past, they were asked to compare their non maquila jobs to their current maquila jobs. Thirty-five
people provided usable information for this question. Six of the people (17 percent) stated that their current jobs were
worse than their past non-maquila employment while nine people (26 percent) stated that their current job was
more or less similar in attractiveness to prior non-maquila employment. Twenty people (57 percent) stated that their
current job was better than their non-maquila jobs in the past. The employment history information clearly shows
that the average maquila worker, if he or she held a job before their maquila employment, had performed what many
would consider relatively unattractive work. Jobs such as maids, cashiers, or laborers on a work crew at a
construction site or on a farm are not typically regarded as attractive employment. When compared to these prior
jobs, the majority of maquila workers preferred their present jobs.
64 percent want to continue their employment
Sargent and Matthews 99 – John D. Sargent: Assistant professor of Management and International Business at Florida
International University; extensive fieldwork experience in Mexico on the maquiladora industry and multinational firms.
Linda M. Matthews: Ph.D. candidate in organizational behavior and human resource management at the School of
Business Administration at the University of Washington. (Jan. 1999, “Exploitation or Choice? Exploring the Relative
Attractiveness of Employment in the Maquiladoras,” http://www.jstor.org/stable/25074047?origin=JSTOR-pdf)
Intentions to continue working in the maquilas A final question that was used to determine the relative
attractiveness of maquila employment was: Do you plan on continuing to work in the maquilas? If maquilas are
more attractive forms of employment than non-maquila employment, it seems logical a maquila worker would want to
stay working in the industry. Exhibit V contains a representative selection of responses to this question. Forty-four line
workers provided usable information to this question. Twenty-seven percent (12 people) stated that they did not want
to continue to be employed by a maquila. Nine percent (4 people) stated that they were undecided. Sixty-four
percent (28 people) indicated that they planned to continue in the maquila industry.
Solvency Contention
1NC Solvency
1. Aff doesn’t solve liberty or rights—costs incurred during guest worker immigration create a debt peonage system
reminiscent of slavery
Ashby 07 –J.D., magna cum laude, from the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law at The University of Memphis; Editor-inChief of The University of Memphis Law Review (Bryce W., “Indentured Guests - How the H-2A and H-2B Temporary
Guest Worker Programs Create the Conditions for Indentured Servitude and Why Upfront Reimbursement for Guest
Workers' Transportation, Visa, and Recruitment Costs Is the Solution,” 38 U. Mem. L. Rev. 893 (2007-2008),
http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/umem38&type=Image&id=901)
A. Protecting the Rights of Guest Workers Requiring employers to pay guest workers' costs upfront and before any
workers enter the United States is the clearest solution to the de-facto debt peonage system under which many H-2A
and H-2B workers labor. If Patrick Quinn had followed Arriaga and made reimbursement after the first week of work, or
if he had been required to pay into an escrow-type account as proposed in this Note, the three hundred workers who
found themselves earning as little as $18 every two weeks in Quinn's hotels would not have been locked into de-facto
indentured servitude. They would have been able to pick up and return to their home countries having lost only the
price of a return ticket. Upfront payment of costs by the employer would allow workers who face sexual, physical, and
severe verbal abuse the opportunity to exit these brutal situations without placing themselves in possibly worse
circumstances. Employer payment would permit such workers to decide their own fate and not be forced to wait out
humiliating and dangerous conditions, to enter into illegal employment outside of the guest worker program, or to
maneuver the American legal system. A mass departure of workers, presumably because of poor treatment, would
also put the DOL on notice that a particular employer was not treating temporary guest workers properly and subject
that employer to increased scrutiny. Upfront payment of expenses also furthers the interests of guest workers
because such a significant initial investment in workers, as the estimated $1.5 million needed for the 300 Decatur Hotels
workers shows, would encourage employers to treat their guest worker employees with respect and allow them to
work under substantially better conditions. One of the chief complaints against Arriaga is the possibility that Arriaga
reimbursement could result in a worker working only one day, yet still receiving reimbursement.150 The proposed
reimbursement structure in this Note does little to alleviate this concern. Although valid from the employer's
perspective, this possible loss should be viewed as merely another factor to be contemplated by the employer in his or
her decision to participate in the guest worker program-it would be another "inevitable and inescapable consequence of
having foreign ... workers employed in the United States."'5' Employers would have to view the guest worker program
as a significant investment and not just a convenience. As an investment, employers that proceed with the guest
worker program would be forced to take steps to guarantee a contented work force. Those steps would presumably
include proper wages, treatment, and living conditions. Upfront payment of costs by the employer also promotes guest
worker rights because it encourages employers to request and to certify only the number of workers that they truly
need for their employment demands. Knowing that they would have to make a substantial investment in these workers
on the front end, employers would be likely to request the bare minimum of actual workers needed. For example, with
the Decatur Hotels situation, Patrick Quinn would likely have requested far fewer guest workers be- cause paying $1.5
million for 300 workers would be cost prohibitive. Fewer workers in that situation would have allowed Mr. Quinn to save
money on the front end, and the workers would have been able to work a far greater number of hours and possibly the
overtime that they were promised. B. Promoting the Interests of Domestic Workers In addition to protecting the rights
of guest workers, upfront employer payment of guest worker program costs promotes the interests of domestic
workers. If after the arrival of guest workers an employer realizes that his need for labor was greater than his request,
then he will be forced to offer more competitive pay to lure domestic workers into those jobs. This would increase
both the opportunities and pay for domestic workers. Increased pay for domestic workers would also increase the
AWER or prevailing wage, depending on which program was being used. With wage rates increasing for guest workers
and for domestic labor, domestic labor might be attracted more to the "unskilled" work normally filled by guest
workers. The increased initial investment, such as the substantial amount Decatur Hotels would have been forced to pay
to participate in the program, would cause employers like Patrick Quinn to rethink the guest worker investment and
consider raising pay for domestic workers a dollar or two an hour instead of paying over a million dollars for guest
workers. All of these consequences would reduce the usage of the guest worker system in the long run and promote the
general interests of domestic labor. C. Curbing Undocumented Immigration Requiring upfront payment also furthers the
interests for which expanded guest worker programs are now offered--curbing undocumented immigration. Some
employers have recruited and hired guest workers from countries such as Indonesia and Thailand. Guest workers from
these countries are seriously isolated because of linguistic barriers and often are subjected to terrible working
conditions.'52 By having to pay money up front, employers are more likely to hire workers from countries that are
closer in proximity to avoid higher travel costs. For example, instead of hiring workers from Bolivia and Peru, which
under the proposed reimbursement program would likely require higher estimated fees to be paid for certification,
Decatur Hotels could have recruited from Mexico and limited the initial investment necessary to participate in the
program. Because the majority of undocumented immigration comes from these countries of close proximity, such as
Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador, undocumented workers would have increased access to legal entry and work
because it would be more economically feasible to invest in workers with shorter travel.153 Upfront payment would
thus reduce some of the worst instances of guest worker abuse and promote the objective of stemming the tide of
undocumented immigration. Employer advocates are likely to argue that requiring upfront payment for the costs
incurred by guest workers in these programs would likely increase the amount of undocumented immigration because it
would no longer be cost effective to participate in the guest worker programs. This is a plausible, if not a likely result of
high upfront reimbursement costs. Because this result runs contrary to the principles of immigration reform and the
policies behind a guest worker program, any new or amended guest worker program that includes the upfront payment
structure advocated for here would also have to include employer penalties large enough to ensure that the guest
worker system remains the most attractive option.' 54 V. CONCLUSION The current guest worker programs have all too
often left immigrant workers in an impossible situation-having to choose between poor and abusive working conditions,
illegal employment, and significant debt from travel, visa, and recruitment costs for employment has resulted in defacto indentured servitude for too many workers. To avoid this problem, to protect the rights and dignity of immigrant
workers, to promote the interests of domestic labor, and to lessen the flow of undocumented immigration, the current
guest worker system should be amended to include-and any new guest worker program passed into law should include
mandated upfront payment for guest worker costs by the requesting employer as an additional requirement for labor
certification.
2. Visa portability exacerbates the debt alt—it must be solved before workers enter the US
Ashby 07 –J.D., magna cum laude, from the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law at The University of Memphis; Editor-inChief of The University of Memphis Law Review (Bryce W., “Indentured Guests - How the H-2A and H-2B Temporary
Guest Worker Programs Create the Conditions for Indentured Servitude and Why Upfront Reimbursement for Guest
Workers' Transportation, Visa, and Recruitment Costs Is the Solution,” 38 U. Mem. L. Rev. 893 (2007-2008),
http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/umem38&type=Image&id=901)
Although this case has drawn some national attention due to its occurrence in the rebuilding of New Orleans postKatrina,8 the quandary of de-facto indentured servitude that these workers face is all too common among H-2A and
H-2B guest workers.9 It is even more frightening given the number of legislative proposals in recent years that either
call for the creation of a new guest worker program or expansion of the present ones.'0 For example, the most recent
comprehensive immigration reform bill proposed in Congress would allow up to 400,000 guest workers to enter the
United States each year." An influx of workers on this scale, without addressing the fundamental issues that create the
conditions for indentured servitude, will prove disastrous for guest workers, domestic workers, and our justice
system. Without entering into a discussion of whether to completely dismantle the current guest worker system or
the validity of guest worker programs in general,12 the key to freeing guest workers from the conditions that create
indentured servitude is the timing of reimbursement and actual payment of costs incurred by the worker to enter
the United States under either the H-2A or H-2B visa pro- grams.'13 The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Arriaga v.
Florida Pacific Farms, LLC, held that costs incurred by guest workers in entering the U.S. through the H-2A program that
are primarily for the benefit of the employer must be reimbursed within the first week of employment to the extent
necessary to avoid pushing the worker's pay below the federal minimum wage.' This ruling requires reimbursement of
expenses within the first week for almost all H-2A workers and, likely, H-2B workers. Guest worker rights and basic
human dignity, domestic labor interests, and immigration policy goals mandate employers' upfront payment of
transportation, visa, recruitment, and other similar costs before guest workers arrive for work in the United States.15
Upfront payment appears to be the only clear way to avoid the type of de-facto debt peonage that occurred in the New
Orleans hotels. Part I of this Note presented the reimbursement dilemma created by our guest worker system. This
dilemma mandates, and this Note calls for, the creation of a reimbursement structure that would guarantee payment of
expenses incurred in connection with participation in the guest worker program by employers in order for employers to
participate in the program. The specifics of this proposal, along with an explanation of why the present system is
unsustainable, are discussed more extensively in Part IV. Before reaching that proposal, Part I provides a short history of
guest worker programs in twentieth century America. Part III examines the current law and the conflict between the
reimbursement practices prescribed in the H-2A and H-2B regulations and the federal minimum wage. Finally, Part V
concludes that any expansion of our present guest worker programs or creation of a new guest worker program
should require employers to pay upfront for guest worker program-related costs incurred by workers as part of the
labor certification process. Additionally, subsequent employment may not be for a period long enough to recoup
expenses. Finally, visa portability endangers the claim that costs guest workers incur in transportation, recruitment
fees, and visa expenses are "primarily for the benefit of the employer" because the participation in the guest worker
program would no longer be tied to an individual employer. See infra Part III.
3. If the plan elimates maquillas, companies shift to Asia—geographical distance is inconsequential
Fernandez-Kelly 87 – Professor of Sociology at Princeton University; Former research fellow for the Center for U.S. Mexican Studies, UCSD (M. Patricia, “Technology and Employment Along the U.S.-Mexican Border,” The United States
and Mexico: Face to Face with Technology)
Third, the extension of advanced technology to maquila production is also constrained by structural factors operating on
an international scale. It was foreign competition in standardized production, primarily competition from Japan, that
forced many advanced industrial countries to seek alternative strategies aimed at retaining their comparative
advantage in the world market. Indeed, the benefits derived from international wage differentials, as well as the need
to reduce production costs and remain competitive in the international sphere, are mentioned most often by managers
as reasons for starting operations in Asia and along the U.S.-Mexican border. Yet massive movements of capital from
advanced industrial countries to Asia and Latin America would not have been possible without the application of
advanced technology to production itself. This has had several paradoxical effects. Thanks to the availability of
computers, firms headquartered in various U.S. locations can harmonize and control production in subsidiaries or
subcontracted affiliates all over the world. Thanks also to the same sophisticated equipment, it is now possible to
subdivide the labor process into increasingly minute and repetitive operations. This allows unskilled and semi-skilled
workers in distant geographical areas to participate in the manufacture of even the most complex products. Maquila
operations can best be understood in the context of this coexistence of centralized production with decentralized
manufacturing. Thus contrary to some optimistic forecasts in advanced industrial countries, "high-tech" is not
eliminating manual labor; rather, it is reorganizing it on the basis of geographical and national considerations. 10 The
separation between the design of technology (which generally takes place in advanced industrial countries) and the
actual assembly of consumer products (which is increasingly being carried out in developing countries) is one of the
consequences of the application of computer technology to manufacturing. Decentralized production and the
simplification of manufacturing operations afford investors in general, and managers in particular, four distinct
advantages: (1) Increased control over production, partly enhanced by the gap between design and assembly; (2)
Increased flexibility in hiring due to the new possibility of engaging in direct production many formerly unemployed or
unemployable" persons without specific training; (3) Reduction in the length of on-the-job training periods resulting
from the almost total replaceability of direct production workers; and (4) Intensification of work and greater output
through the implementation of high production quotas fulfilled by workers specializing in one or two operations. These
four advantages have political as well as economic aspects. The geographical separation between design and assembly
strengthens employer control over workers in various locations, while the feasibility of subdividing complex production
processes into unskilled operations justifies the search for cheap labor in developing countries. The electronics industry
has created the tools for enhancing—and has received the benefits of—this international rearrangement of production.
Almost from its inception, electronics manufacturing has relied heavily on highly specialized research and development,
while transferring assembly abroad—first to Asia, and then to Latin America. For example, in the early 1960s, Fairchild,
one of the pioneers in the field, was one of the first companies to design and produce consumer electronics products
in large volumes. It was also one of the first to move its assembly operations to South Korea (1962) and to Hong Kong
(1964). This started a trend that still continues today.11 In electronics production as well as many other areas of
industrial production, the race to improve existing technologies while at the same time lowering costs greatly limits the
participation of developing countries in the process of technology transfer. This is particularly true when, as in the case
of the maquiladora program, incentives for autonomous research and development are absent. The technology gap
separating production in advanced and developing countries has widened in the last five years as a result of the
bifurcation of the electronics industry. On the one hand, the majority of large and small U.S.-based electronics
manufacturers continue to produce relatively simple components with limited random-access memory, but with wide
application in a variety of consumer products. The assembly of such components requires low levels of quality control,
and they can also be easily and cheaply transported. Such factors render geographical distance inconsequential,
making less developed areas in Asia and the U.S.-Mexican border attractive settings for their production. On the
other hand, the electronics industry is experiencing a rise m capital-intensive production, including the formation of
large corporations dedicated to the manufacture of fourth- and fifth-generation computer components, interactive
graphic terminals, fiber optics-related products, a variety of software and applications systems, and equipment linked to
bioengineering and artificial intelligence. In this sector, creativity is astonishing, but costly. Invention, discovery, and
prototype fabrication require sizable investments in highly skilled personnel, heavy machinery, and quality control—as
well as proximity to major universities and to specialized markets often linked to military and defense expenditures. As a
result, regions in New York, California, Texas, and Florida are becoming preferred locations for this kind of production.12
Thus even the mobility of capital investments fostered by the availability of advanced technology has its limits. The type
of production that is likely to continue to be carried out in the developing countries—in some parts of Asia, Latin
America, and the Caribbean Basin—for the most part involves the relatively simpler, standardized components. The
extent to which the U.S.-Mexican border will be thrust into further competition with Asian locations will be affected
by the following three considerations: 1. It is important to remember that forecasts anticipate worldwide increases in
demand for simpler electronics components through the end of the century. This suggests that locations such as the
U.S.- Mexican border will continue to be favored for relatively simple assembly.13 2. Some Asian countries, particularly
Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan, have implemented economic policies relying on joint ventures, greater
selectivity by type of industry, and enhancement of links to national firms. These policies are enhancing the eligibility
of these countries for increased investment in intermediate electronics and machinery, which, in turn, will result in
more profitable types of production.
Monken 10 – Master’s in Economics, specializing in Offshoring and Outsourcing, University of Arizona (Emily,
11/30/2010, “Offshoring and Outsourcing IT and BPO Service Positions: Mexico vs. India,”
https://next.eller.arizona.edu/courses/outsourcing/Fall2010/student_papers/final_papers/Monken,%20Emily%20%20Offshoring%20and%20Outsourcing%20IT%20and%20BPO%20Service%20Positions-Mexico%20vs%20India.pdf)
In 1994, Xerox and Electronic Data Systems (EDS) made one of the first major offshored outsourcing deals with a $3.2
billion contract.9 The main international trend, however, did not begin until the late 1990s through 2001. This was
fueled by two events: the U.S. economic crash resulting from the Internet (or Dotcom) Bubble, and a shortage in U.S.
programmers to change codes in preparation for Y2K, which caught U.S. businesses in a predicament that required
rapid cost cutting measures, and a need to seek an increased software programmer labor force.10 Thankfully, India’s
communication sector was in a good position to accept the influx—their government worked throughout the 1990s
to liberalize the domestic economy and allow privatization, which also affected the telecom companies thus lowering
communication costs.11 Ever since, the U.S. has continued to outsource IT, as well as BPO positions largely to India.12
Just as the U.S businesses sought adequate, affordable labor at the turn of the century, incentives to outsource service
jobs offshore remains encompassed in a desire to maintain a competitive position in the global economy. Over time,
the diverse nature of these positions continues to grow. Offshore Outsourced IT Positions Grow Not Only in Quantity,
but in Diversity An alternate example of utilizing offshore outsourcing within the IT sector is telemedicine, known as:
“the delivery of physician services using telecommunications and, often, video imaging technology.”13 This method can
be applied to over 60 applications, but it most commonly used in “teleradiology, telepsychiatry, teledermatology and
telepathology.”14 Teleradiology, for instance, is an advantageous service to the medical community in the United
States, because a limited number of available radiologists during the evening, the weekend, or on holidays creates a
vacuum where services are still needed. India's alternate time zone and holidays make their qualified radiologists a
suitable complementary resource to available services in the U.S., especially when time restraints are critical.15
Another phenomenon to consider is the growing trend of medical tourism. An increasing number of Americans are
traveling to overseas locations such as India to receive medical care at less than half the cost of what they would pay in
their own country (see Figure 5). Furthermore, U.S. companies are beginning to promote medical tourism so that they
can save on insurance fees, and can “internalize more revenue as well as keep wages reasonable.”16 Examples of BPO
Services Business process outsourcing— a fairly-self explanatory title—covers a wide spectrum of services, from "call
centers, accounting, payroll, employee benefits, tax preparation," to "films and cartoon production, and even research
and development."17 The BPO process is not dissimilar from IT services (therefore it is also known by a related name—
Information Technology Enabled Service, or ITeS). BPO services, however, are much more closely linked with the
internal business operations of the client.18 Companies such as IBM, Accenture, Hewitt Associates, Capgemini,
Genpact, Winpro, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Agencies (TCS), are primary international BPO service providers.19
Further Consideration: Why India? As a mature offshore destination,20 India maintains qualities aside from just cheap
labor and telecommunications. A stable government and educated workforce further enable India to be a prime
locations that further attracts foreign investors to their IT and BPO markets.21
India has a political
environment characterized by a stable democracy of 63 years that foreign international business feels safe to work
with.22 Furthermore, the legal and judicial system maintains continuity as it is similar to that of the United Kingdom,
reflecting a remnant of the British Raj, which ruled India for over two hundred years.23
Indian postsecondary education has grown considerably over the past 20 years,24 and more recently, “Several prominent
management schools in American private universities are opening management institutes in India in collaboration
with local business firms.”25 Funding to attend these institutions is accessible through government financial aid and is
received by the majority of Indian college students.26 Some institutions, such as the Indian Institutes of Technology
are world renowned and highly regarded, producing quality employees27—many of which are employed in the
professional service sector.
Impact Framing Contention
1NC Impact Framing
1. Their framing is flawed—magnitude overwhelms low probability
Posner 05 [Richard A. Posner, “The Probability of Catastrophe,” Wall Street Journal, January 4, 2005]
The fact that a catastrophe is very unlikely to occur is not a rational justification for ignoring the risk of its occurrence.
Suppose that a tsunami as destructive as the one in the Indian Ocean occurs on average once a century and kills 150,000 people. That is an average of 1,500 deaths per year. Without having to attempt a sophisticated
estimate of the value of life to the people exposed to the risk, one can say with some confidence that if an annual death toll of 1,500 could be substantially reduced at moderate cost, the investment would be worthwhile.
A combination of educating the residents of low-lying coastal areas about the warning signs of a tsunami (tremors and a sudden recession in the ocean), establishing a warning system involving emergency broadcasts,
telephoned warnings, and air-raid-type sirens, and improving emergency response systems, would have saved many of the people killed by the Indian Ocean tsunami, probably at a total cost below any reasonable estimate
of the average losses that can be expected from tsunamis. Relocating people away from coasts would be even more efficacious, but except in the most vulnerable areas or in areas in which residential or commercial uses
have only marginal value, the costs would probably exceed the benefits. For annual costs of protection must be matched with annual, not total, expected costs of tsunamis. Why weren't any cost-justified precautionary
measures taken in anticipation of a tsunami on the scale that occurred? Tsunamis are a common consequence of earthquakes, which themselves are common; and tsunamis can have other causes besides earthquakes -- a
major asteroid strike in an ocean would create a tsunami that would dwarf the Indian Ocean one. There are a number of reasons for such neglect. First, although a once-in-a-century event is as likely to occur at the
beginning of the century as at any other time, it is much less likely to occur in the first decade of the century than later. Politicians with limited terms of office and thus foreshortened political horizons are likely to discount
low-risk disaster possibilities, since the risk of damage to their careers from failing to take precautionary measures is truncated. Second, to the extent that effective precautions require governmental action, the fact that
government is a centralized system of control makes it difficult for officials to respond to the full spectrum of possible risks against which cost-justified measures might be taken. The officials, given the variety of matters to
which they must attend, are likely to have a high threshold of attention below which risks are simply ignored. Third, where risks are regional or global rather than local, many national governments, especially in the poorer
and smaller countries, may drag their heels in the hope of taking a free ride on the larger and richer countries. Knowing this, the latter countries may be reluctant to take precautionary measures and by doing so reward
people
have difficulty thinking in terms of probabilities, especially very low probabilities, which they tend therefore to write
off. This weakens political support for incurring the costs of taking precautionary measures against low- probability disasters. The operation of some of these factors is illustrated by the refusal of the Pacific nations,
and thus encourage free riding. Fourth, countries are poor often because of weak, inefficient, or corrupt government, characteristics that may disable poor nations from taking cost-justified precautions. Fifth,
which do have a tsunami warning system, to extend their system to the Indian Ocean prior to the recent catastrophe. Tsunamis are more common in the Pacific, and most of the Pacific nations do not abut on the Indian
Ocean. An even more dramatic example concerns the asteroid menace, which is analytically similar to the menace of tsunamis. NASA, with an annual budget of more than $10 billion, spends only $4 million a year on
mapping dangerously close large asteroids, and at that rate may not complete the task for another decade, even though such mapping is the key to an asteroid defense because it may give us years of warning. Deflecting
an asteroid from its orbit when it is still millions of miles from the earth is a feasible undertaking. In both cases, slight risks of terrible disasters are largely ignored essentially for political reasons. In part because tsunamis
The fact that a disaster of a particular type
has not occurred recently or even within human memory (or even ever) is a bad reason to ignore it. The risk may be slight, but if the
consequences, should it materialize, are great enough, the expected cost of disaster may be sufficient to warrant defensive
measures.
are one of the risks of an asteroid collision, the Indian Ocean disaster has stimulated new interest in asteroid defense. This is welcome.
2. Prefer a utilitarian framework—all lives are valuable
Cummisky 96 (David, professor of philosophy at Bates, “Kantian Consequentialism”, p. 131)
Finally, even if one grants that saving two persons with dignity cannot outweigh and compensate for killing one—
because dignity cannot be added and summed in this way—this point still does not justify deontological
constraints. On the extreme interpretation, why would not killing one person be a stronger obligation than saving
two persons? If I am concerned with the priceless dignity of each, it would seem that I may still save two; it is just
that my reason cannot be that the two compensate for the loss of the one. Consider Hill's example of a priceless
object: If I can save two of three priceless statutes only by destroying one, then I cannot claim that saving two
makes up for the loss of the one. But similarly, the loss of the two is not outweighed by the one that was not
destroyed. Indeed, even if dignity cannot be simply summed up, how is the extreme interpretation inconsistent
with the idea that I should save as many priceless objects as possible? Even if two do not simply outweigh and
thus compensate for the loss of the one, each is priceless; thus, I have good reason to save as many as I can. In
short, it is not clear how the extreme interpretation justifies the ordinary killing/letting-die distinction or even how
it conflicts with the conclusion that the more persons with dignity who are saved, the better.8
3. Obsolescence theory increases the probability of war—causes states to neglect security interests
Doran, Professor of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies,
Summer 1999 (Charles F., Survival, “Is Major War Obsolete? An Exchange: The Structural Turbulence of International
Affairs,” June, vol.41 no.2, p.139-142)
The conclusion, then, is that the probability of major war declines for some states, but increases for others. And it is very
difficult to argue that it has disappeared in any significant or reliable or hopeful sense. Moreover, a problem with
arguing a position that might be described as utopian is that such arguments have policy implications. It is worrying that
as a thesis about the obsolescence of major war becomes more compelling to more people, including presumably
governments, the tendency will be to forget about the underlying problem, which is not war per se, but security. And by
neglecting the underlying problem of security, the probability of war perversely increases: as governments fail to
provide the kind of defence and security necessary to maintain deterrence, one opens up the possibility of new
challenges. In this regard it is worth recalling one of Clauswitz`s most important insights: A conqueror is always a lover of
peace. He would like to make his entry into our state unopposed. That is the underlying dilemma when one argues that
a major war is not likely to occur and, as a consequence, one need not necessarily be so concerned about providing the
defences that underlie security itself. History shows that surprise threats emerge and rapid destabilising efforts are
made to try to provide that missing defence, and all of this contributes to the spiral of uncertainty that leads in the end
to war.
4. A reduction of the risk of extinction by 1 millionth of 1 percent saves ten billion lives and comes before any other
impact
Bostrom 11 (Nick, Oxford Martin School & Faculty of Philosophy, 2011, “The Concept of Existential Risk” http://www.existentialrisk.com/concept.html)
Holding probability constant, risks become more serious as we move toward the upper-right region of figure 2. For any fixed probability, existential risks are thus
more serious than other risk categories. But just how much more serious might not be intuitively obvious. One
might think we could get a grip on
how bad an existential catastrophe would be by considering some of the worst historical disasters we can think of—such as
the two world wars, the Spanish flu pandemic, or the Holocaust—and then imagining something just a bit worse. Yet if we look at global population
statistics over time, we find that these horrible events of the past century fail to register (figure 3). Figure 3: World population over
the last century. Calamities such as the Spanish flu pandemic, the two world wars, and the Holocaust scarcely register. (If one stares hard at the graph, one can
perhaps just barely make out a slight temporary reduction in the rate of growth of the world population during these events.) But
even this reflection fails
to bring out the seriousness of existential risk. What makes existential catastrophes especially bad is not that they would
show up robustly on a plot like the one in figure 3, causing a precipitous drop in world population or average quality of life.
Instead, their significance lies primarily in the fact that they would destroy the future. The philosopher Derek Parfit made a similar
point with the following thought experiment: I believe that if we destroy mankind, as we now can, this outcome will be much worse than most people think.
Compare three outcomes: (1) Peace. (2) A nuclear war that kills 99% of the world’s existing population. (3) A nuclear war
that kills 100%. (2) would be worse than (1), and (3) would be worse than (2). Which is the greater of these two differences? Most people
believe that the greater difference is between (1) and (2). I believe that the difference between (2) and (3) is very much
greater. … The Earth will remain habitable for at least another billion years. Civilization began only a few thousand years ago. If we do not destroy
mankind, these few thousand years may be only a tiny fraction of the whole of civilized human history. The difference
between (2) and (3) may thus be the difference between this tiny fraction and all of the rest of this history. If we compare this
possible history to a day, what has occurred so far is only a fraction of a second. (10: 453-454) To calculate the loss associated with an existential
catastrophe, we must consider how much value would come to exist in its absence. It turns out that the ultimate
potential for Earth-originating intelligent life is literally astronomical. One gets a large number even if one confines one’s
consideration to the potential for biological human beings living on Earth. If we suppose with Parfit that our planet will remain habitable
for at least another billion years, and we assume that at least one billion people could live on it sustainably, then the potential exist for at least 1018
human lives. These lives could also be considerably better than the average contemporary human life, which is so often marred by disease, poverty, injustice,
and various biological limitations that could be partly overcome through continuing technological and moral progress. To calculate the loss associated
with an existential catastrophe, we must consider how much value would come to exist in its absence. It turns out that the
ultimate potential for Earth-originating intelligent life is literally astronomical. One gets a large number even if one confines one’s
consideration to the potential for biological human beings living on Earth. If we suppose with Parfit that our planet will remain habitable for
at least another billion years, and we assume that at least one billion people could live on it sustainably, then the
potential exist for at least 10^18 human lives. These lives could also be considerably better than the average contemporary human life, which is so
often marred by disease, poverty, injustice, and various biological limitations that could be partly overcome through continuing technological and moral progress.
However, the
relevant figure is not how many people could live on Earth but how many descendants we could have in
total. One lower bound of the number of biological human life-years in the future accessible universe (based on current cosmological
estimates) is 10^34 years.[10] Another estimate, which assumes that future minds will be mainly implemented in computational hardware instead of
biological neuronal wetware, produces a lower bound of 10^54 human-brain-emulation subjective life-years (or 10^71 basic
computational operations).(4)[11] If we make the less conservative assumption that future civilizations could eventually press close to the absolute bounds of known
physics (using some as yet unimagined technology), we get radically higher estimates of the amount of computation and memory storage that is achievable and thus
of the number of years of subjective experience that could be realized.[12] Even
if we use the most conservative of these estimates, which
entirely ignores the possibility of space colonization and software minds, we find that the expected loss of an existential
catastrophe is greater than the value of 10^18 human lives. This implies that the expected value of reducing existential
risk by a mere one millionth of one percentage point is at least ten times the value of a billion human lives. The more
technologically comprehensive estimate of 1054 human-brain-emulation subjective life-years (or 1052 lives of ordinary length) makes the same
point even more starkly. Even if we give this allegedly lower bound on the cumulative output potential of a
technologically mature civilization a mere 1% chance of being correct, we find that the expected value of reducing
existential risk by a mere one billionth of one billionth of one percentage point is worth a hundred billion times as much
as a billion human lives. One might consequently argue that even the tiniest reduction of existential risk has an expected
value greater than that of the definite provision of any “ordinary” good, such as the direct benefit of saving 1 billion
lives. And, further, that the absolute value of the indirect effect of saving 1 billion lives on the total cumulative amount of existential risk—positive or negative—is
almost certainly larger than the positive value of the direct benefit of such an action.[13]
Politics DA
1NC Plan Unpopular
Guest work visas are controversial
Prah 7/17 (Pamela M., Pew/Stateline Staff Writer, USA Today; Wage debate delays guest worker visas for states,
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/07/17/stateline-h2b-visas/2525031/)
From Cape Cod innkeepers to the seafood industry in Louisiana, employers who depend on seasonal foreign workers
have scrambled to fill positions this year because of wrangling in Washington over how much these workers should be
paid. At issue is a guest worker program, known as H-2B, which allows employers to hire foreigners for seasonal
nonagricultural jobs when they can't find enough U.S. workers. Another program, the H-2A, is strictly for agricultural
workers. Both programs are part of the alphabet soup of U.S. immigration laws that Congress is debating. Industries
crucial to state economies rely on the H-2B program, which issues up to 66,000 seasonal visas a year. These workers fan
out to the crab-picking industry on Maryland's Eastern Shore, ski resorts in Colorado, shrimp processing plants in
Louisiana and beach resorts in the Carolinas. They clean hotel rooms, take your dinner order, coach at your kid's soccer
camp and labor on construction sites across the country. But this year, some employers had to wait weeks longer than
they had anticipated for the visas because of a controversial Obama administration proposal seeking higher wages for
these workers. As the issue got mired in multiple court cases, mostly attempting to block the higher wages, processing
applications for H-2B visas temporarily halted in March by a court order. When the federal government started
processing applications again in April, employers say wages rose on average 30 percent. Higher wages disputed Under
the Obama plan, the wage for an H2-B landscape laborer in Pennsylvania, for example, went to $12.46 an hour, from
$8.50. A Florida amusement park attendant's hourly rate rose to $11.60 from $7.98. The hourly rate for a short-order
cook in Massachusetts increased to $11.59 from $8.63 while a server there now earns $13.01 from $9.99 an hour,
according to the H-2B Workforce Coalition, an employers' group that opposes the higher wages. The delay caused by the
courts created problems for businesses that use these seasonal workers. A small inn along the New England coast, for
example, had to cut dinner service and cancel a wedding reception after foreign cooks, housekeepers and other staff
arrived 45 days late, said Jane Nichols Bishop, president of Peak Season Workforce in Mashpee, Mass., a staffing
company specializing in international workers. Bishop said that that about 40 percent of her clients received their
workers late this year because of processing delays. That includes a Nantucket hotel that had 27 guest rooms occupied
over Memorial Day weekend and no H-2B staff to clean rooms, change linens and prepare breakfast, she said. The
owner resorted to cleaning guest rooms herself. The delays "occurred at the worst possible time, when businesses were
busy ramping up for the summer season," said Brad Dean, president of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.
"Had the suspension occurred three months earlier or later, it would not have had as much impact." Tourism is Myrtle
Beach's top industry with 60 percent of business coming between June and August, he said. "The suspension of
processing caused a delay in the middle of the hiring process leaving many businesses to wonder when, or if, processing
would be completed," he said. Complex bureaucracy Guest worker programs like the H-2B remain controversial. Many
employers view the program as an essential source of getting legal workers and that without it, they might have to
downsize. Unions and advocates call the H-2B program exploitative; the Southern Poverty Law Center called it "close to
slavery". Wal-Mart last year suspended one of its seafood suppliers in Louisiana after advocates uncovered a series of
abuses of H-2B guest workers, including excessive hours of work, wages far below the legal minimum and oppressive
living conditions. A 2010 congressional investigation found hotel owners who threatened H-2B workers that they would
be sent home in a "box" if they disobeyed orders. Other foreign workers paid $20,000 for H-2B visas but were never
employed in the U.S.
x
1NC Plan Popular
The plan increases the QOL for Mexicans, addresses illegal immigration, benefits the ag industry, and is popular in
both nations politically
LaFranchi (Staff writer at the Christian Science Monitor) 1, Howard, "A new plan to legalize illegal workers from Mexico."
Christian Science Monitor (Boston, MA). (January 23, 2001 , Tuesday ): 917 words. LexisNexis Academic. Web. Date
Accessed: 2013/07/19.
Five US senators are working on a 'guest worker' program. Bush will go to Mexico on Feb. 16. For decades, Mexicans
have been going north illegally to pick tomatoes, wash dishes and clean houses. Now a group of US lawmakers says
it's time to make it legal. With the number of Mexican illegal laborers now estimated to be between 3 and 7 million, the
five US senators want to make changes that would give the Mexicans the legal status of "guestworkers." " We want
to set up a workable guest-worker program so people can come into America legally to work, have their rights
protected, and accumulate human and financial capital to take back to Mexico," says Sen. Phil Gramm (R.) of Texas.
Yet, though US and Mexican officials say such a program will draw support from both countries' presidents,
immigration experts caution that a worker program is unlikely to reverse a long tradition of undocumented northward
migration. Enforcement is seen as one of the difficulties, along with the challenge of convincing Mexicans that they will
be better off applying under the new program than following the traditional path across the border. The plan would
benefit both the US and Mexico, the senators argue: Labor-intensive US industries like agriculture and construction
would have a reliable source of workers, while the workers would have salary, labor-condition, and other rights that
as illegals they cannot demand. Given the option of working in the US legally, Mexicans would be less likely to
migrate illegally, says Sen. Gramm, who hopes to have the program operative within a year. The program would first
apply to legal workers already in the US. It would not include the possibility of US citizenship, since one goal of the
program is to encourage Mexicans to take their savings and new skills back to Mexico.
Sustainable Maquillas CP
Text: The United Mexican States should
-offer incentives and/or tax exemptions to foreign companies willing to purchase a portion of their components in
Mexico;
-award additional tax exemptions to maquiladoras that equip sister firms owned by local investors with technology
for domestic production, consumption, and export;
-impose additional taxes and stricter conditions on companies wishing to invest in Mexico in industrial activities
shown to have been deleterious in the past;
-use any available economic tools to encourage the promotion of qualified assemblers to positions of greater
responsibility, modeled after the Centro de Orientation de la Mujer Obrera.
Solves maquiladora sustainability and worker conditions
Fernandez-Kelly 87 – Professor of Sociology at Princeton University; Former research fellow for the Center for U.S. Mexican Studies, UCSD (M. Patricia, “Technology and Employment Along the U.S.-Mexican Border,” The United States
and Mexico: Face to Face with Technology)
In spite of the problems outlined in this chapter, maquiladoras continue to be a vital source of earnings for hundreds
of thousands of Mexicans and their families. Therefore, the challenge does not concern the existence of the program
itself. Rather, it is about the steps that might be taken to incorporate maquiladoras into a larger program for national
development. Integrated planning should include an interest in growth, but it should also take into account measures
designed to raise standards of living, purchasing power, and working conditions for the majority of plant employees.
Moreover, planning does not, as some would fear, have to result in the stifling of investment or economic activity. The
following four measures illustrate potential benefits that planning could assure at minimal cost: 1. "Backward Linkages"
with Domestic Firms. One of the major problems of maquila operations is their extreme isolation from the
surrounding economy. The experience of countries like South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan suggests that export
processing can be most effective when linked with national firms providing services and secondary inputs. The very
definition of maquila production has prevented plants from absorbing domestically fabricated components. This
trend could, however, be reduced in two ways: First, additional incentives and/or exemptions could be offered to
foreign companies willing to purchase a portion of their components in Mexico. A feasibility study is needed to
appraise the extent to which this would be cost-effective. Nevertheless, there is no reason to believe that this measure
would raise the cost of production, especially if counterbalanced by additional tax exemptions. While this would
reduce the amount of earnings directly received by the Mexican government, it would also stimulate further economic
activity from which other revenues could be expected in the future. Moreover, additional backward linkages could be
created through the provision of services and manufactures having to do with the processing of waste and residues,
transportation, and packaging. Such activities could be subcontracted to small Mexican firms benefiting from private
and public loans. In sum, Mexico must outline and create the conditions to enhance the probability that the
maquiladoras will absorb small but significant proportions of domestic materials and services. 2. Training and
Technological Development. A similar strategy might be followed with respect to the transfer of simple types of
technology for domestic production. A small number of maquiladoras might be awarded additional tax exemptions
when becoming part of an experimental project aimed at establishing and equipping sister firms owned by local
investors with simple technology for domestic production, consumption, and export. Some of the training could have
an application in sectors not directly related to maquila production. At present, maquiladoras have no incentive to
maintain their work force for extended periods of time or to upgrade the skills of workers beyond the level of direct
production. However, mechanisms could be created to transform maquiladoras into training centers. For example,
instead of despairing about the scarcity of qualified personnel at the local level, companies could be encouraged to
dedicate part of their resources to in-house training. As part of such a scheme, the Mexican government could provide
workers with vouchers for on-thejob training. Firms accepting vouchers would qualify to have a portion of their
training costs paid by the government. While this measure would require some additional investment, the benefits to
both industry and domestic economic activity could be considerable. 3. Selectivity by Industry. Time after time, research
has demonstrated that not all forms of industrial activity are beneficial to communities or nations. The maquila program
is particularly inefficient in that it does not differentiate among various industrial activities and their impact on the
community. Since fly-by-night garment operations have proved to have negative effects and few redeeming features,
there is no reason to continue encouraging that type of investment. Additional taxes and stricter conditions should be
imposed on companies wishing to invest in Mexico in industrial activities shown to have been deleterious in the past. On
the other hand, companies in advanced sectors of technological development also willing to make a commitment to
industrial activity in terms similar to the ones sketched here should be deserving of additional incentives. 4. Promotion
Programs. Perhaps most important, the enormous human resource formed by the experience of tens of thousands of
women who have been employed in maquiladoras should not go to waste. The business sector should be encouraged
to promote a small number of qualified assemblers to positions of greater responsibility, including those requiring
technical and supervisory skills. There have been few instances of organizations catering to the experience and needs of
women working in the maquiladoras. There is, however, one major and hopeful example. Since the early 1970s, the
Centro de Orientation de la Mujer Obrera (COMO) in Ciudad Juarez has served as a reservoir of information too often
ignored by promoters of the maquila industry and by government officials. In the course of its hazardous existence,
COMO has implemented promotional programs and conducted research on the characteristics and lifestyle of
maquiladora workers. The most significant lesson derived from this wealth of knowledge is that women who have
worked in the plants desire an opportunity to make a lasting contribution to their families and communities. Centers
such as COMO deserve serious consideration by the Mexican government and private industry. They could easily be
transformed into training and counseling centers where workers could both obtain comprehensive information about
their rights and responsibilities under Mexican law, and learn some of the skills that would enable them to compete
for better jobs. The history of the maquila program has been characterized by a laissez-faire attitude on the part of the
government. The assumption has been that even the smallest demand made of foreign companies could result in the
loss of investments, whose most important effect has been the creation of sorely needed jobs. As a result, there has not
been a serious attempt to study ways of reconciling the need for vital economic activity derived from export
manufacturing with the need to protect the interests of workers and communities. It is time to redress this limited
approach to the maquila industry. The suggestions included here are neither unrealistic nor extreme. They merely
support the statements of Mexican public officials that maquila operations should be an integral aspect of Mexico's
strategy for development.
Mexican Economy DA
1NC Maquillas
Mexican economy is stable now but overreliance on the US dooms growth
Bishop 13 (Marlon, The World, PRI's The World is a one-hour, weekday radio news magazine offering a mix of news,
features, interviews, and music from around the globe; High-Tech Manufacturing Driving Economy in
Mexico, http://www.theworld.org/2013/02/mexico-manufacturing/)
Volkswagen first came to Mexico in 1967, when it opened a plant in Puebla, a few hours drive from Mexico City. For
decades, the Bug was the biggest-selling car in the country. Today, the Puebla plant has expanded to become the
largest auto factory in North America, employing 18,000 people. It’s a state-of-the-art facility full of industrial robots
and blinking computer equipment. The plant has the capacity to produce 2,500 cars a day, in popular models such as the
Jetta and Golf. After rolling off the line, the cars are packed into trains and shipped off to retailers. Most of them are
sold abroad. Mexico is now the eighth biggest auto producer in the world, as well as the world’s fourth biggest
exporter, according to the Mexican Automotive Industry Association. In 2012, the country produced almost 3 million
cars, a national record. Experts say those numbers are on track to keep growing. “Mexico is becoming quite an
automotive powerhouse,” says Thomas Karig, a vice president at Volkswagen Mexico. Karig says Mexico is an attractive
place for car companies to set up shop for several reasons: a great location for exporting to North and South America, an
open trade policy, and experience in the work force. Last September, Audi, a Volkswagen subsidiary, announced the
construction of a new plant nearby. They’ll be assembling the luxury Q5 SUV. Eduardo Solís, president of the Mexican
Automotive Industry Association, says it’s a watershed moment for the country. “There is an important element here
where Mexico is, currently in the automotive industry, associated with good quality, with good products,” says Solís.
“We have been scaling up in the value chain.” VW Factory in Puebla, Mexico (Photo: VW Mexico) VW Factory in Puebla,
Mexico (Photo: VW Mexico) Until recently, Mexico’s economy was based on low-paying, labor-intensive industries like
textiles. About a decade ago, those industries started fleeing to China or Central America, where it’s even cheaper to
operate. But now, Mexico is growing big-time in better-paying industries, like autos, aerospace, and technology, which
require better-educated workers. Hector Muñoz, a 48-year-old technician at Volkswagen, is a living example of that
change. Muñoz comes from a family of street vendors, and scored a job at Volkswagen after an uncle got him interested
in fixing up cars. After 20 years working on the VW line, he makes 12,000 pesos a month. That comes out to only about
$30 US a day, but its six times minimum wage in Mexico, putting him squarely in the country’s middle class. Thanks to
this job, he’s been able to put his kids through college. Two of them are now engineers, a fact he’s really proud of.
“Before there weren’t as many opportunities as there are now,” says Muñoz. In my case, being at Volkswagen has
really encouraged me to push my kids to learn more, to get better educations.” There are a lot of others like Muñoz.
According to the World Bank, 17 percent of Mexico’s population joined the middle class between 2003 and 2009, now
making up almost a quarter of the population. But there’s a long way to go – half of Mexico still lives below the
poverty line. Victor Piz, editor of Mexico’s chief financial newspaper El Financiero, says those people are being left out
this high-tech boom. “I think the main problem in Mexico is the distribution of revenue coming into the country,” says
Piz. “None of it goes into the pockets of Mexico’s poor. This wealth doesn’t matter to them because they’re not
receiving any benefit from it.” Piz also warns that Mexico could have a problem sustaining its recent growth – almost 4
percent for two straight years – because it relies too heavily on one trading partner, the US. Mexico has free trade
agreements like NAFTA with 44 countries, but still overwhelmingly exports to its neighbor to the North. “When the
United States turns off its engines, inevitably, Mexico also has to turn off its engines as well,” says Piz. Today, Mexico
City traffic is no longer a sea of VW Bugs. There are the gleaming Lexuses of the wealthy, and the Nissans of the
country’s middle class – not to mention the mini-buses that transport the working poor. But taxis are still being made in
Mexico. New York City’s brand new taxi fleet is currently in production at a Nissan plant in Cuernavaca.
Growth key to prevent drug wars and state collapse
Barnes 11 – Bonner Means Baker Fellow at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Rice University (Joe, 4/29/11,
“Oil and U.S.-Mexico Bilateral Relations,” http://bakerinstitute.org/publications/EF-pub-BarnesBilateral-04292011.pdf)
In summary, the slow decline of Mexican oil production, in and of itself, is unlikely to have a dramatic impact on
international petroleum markets or prompt any dramatic response from the United States. There is, however, one set of
circumstances which this decline would capture Washington's attention. That is the extent to which it contributes to
significant instability in Mexico. There is already a short- to medium-term risk of substantial instability in Mexico. As
noted, the country is enduring extremely high levels of drug-related violence. Even if the Mexican government
eventually succeeds in its efforts to suppress this violence, the process is likely to be expensive, bloody, and corrosive
in terms of human rights. A period of feeble economic growth, combined with a fiscal crisis associated with a drop in
revenues from Pemex, could create a "perfect storm" south of the border. If this were to occur, Washington would
have no choice but to respond. In the longer-term, the United States has a clear interest in robust economic growth
and fiscal sustainability in Mexico.4 There is at least one major example of the U.S. coming to Mexico's aid in an
economic emergency. In 1994, the United States extended USS20 billion in loan guarantees to Mexico when the peso
collapsed, in large part to make U.S. creditors whole.5 Not least, a healthy Mexican economy would reduce the flow of
illegal immigration to the United States. To the extent that prospects for such growth and sustainability are enhanced
by reform of Pemex, the United States should be supportive. It might be best, in terms of U.S. economic and
commercial interests, were Pemex to be fully privatized, but even partial reforms would be welcome. Not all national oil
companies are created equal: Pemex's development into something like Norway's Statol would mark an important
improvement.36
Mexican economic collapse causes a global depression
Rangel 95 – Fellow at the Monterrey Bureau (Enrique, 11/28/1995, “Pressure on the Peso,” The Dallas Morning News,
Lexis Nexis)
With the exception of 1982 - when Mexico defaulted on its foreign debt and a handful of giant New York banks worried
they would lose billions of dollars in loans - few people abroad ever cared about a weak peso. But now it's different,
experts say. This time, the world is keeping a close eye on Mexico's unfolding financial crisis for one simple reason:
Mexico is a major international player. If its economy were to collapse, it would drag down a few other countries and
thousands of foreign investors. If recovery is prolonged, the world economy will feel the slowdown. "It took a peso
devaluation so that other countries could notice the key role that Mexico plays in today's global economy," said
economist Victor Lopez Villafane of the Monterrey Institute of Technology. "I hate to say it, but if Mexico were to
default on its debts, that would trigger an international financial collapse" not seen since the Great Depression, said
Dr. Lopez, who has conducted comparative studies of the Mexican economy and the economies of some Asian and
Latin American countries. That’s why it’s in the best interests of the United States and the industrialized world to help
Mexico weather its economic crisis,” he said. The crisis began last December when the Mexican government devalued
the currency. Last March, after weeks of debate, President Clinton, the International Monetary Fund and a handful of
other countries and international agencies put together a $ 53 billion rescue package for Mexico. But despite the help - $
20 billion in guarantee loans from the United States - Mexico’s financial markets have been volatile for most of the year.
The peso is now trading at about 7.70 to the dollar, after falling to an all-time low of 8.30 to the dollar Nov. 9. The road
has been bumpy, and that has made many - particularly U.S. investors - nervous. No country understands better the
importance of Mexico to the global economy than the United States, said Jorge Gonzalez Davila, an economist at
Trinity University in San Antonio. “Despite the rhetoric that you hear in Washington, I think that most people agree even those who oppose any aid to Mexico - that when Mexico sneezes, everybody catches a cold,” Mr. Gonzalez said.
“That’s why nowadays any talk of aid to Mexico or trade with Mexico gets a lot of attention,” he said. Most economists,
analysts and business leaders on both sides of the border agree that the biggest impact abroad of a prolonged
Mexican fiscal crisis may be on the U.S. economy, especially in Texas and in cities bordering Mexico.
Economic Collapse causes poverty and disease- makes war inevitable
Klare, Michael T. Alternet: Foreign Policy in Focus: Economy “Will our economic collapse cause the death of millions
abroad?” March 20, 2009 <
http://www.alternet.org/economy/132523/will_our_economic_collapse_cause_the_death_of_millions_abroad/>
The likely result: A looming food crisis in many areas hit hardest by the global economic meltdown.
Until now, concern over the human impact of the global crisis has largely been focused -- understandably so -- on
unemployment and economic hardship in the United States, Europe, and former Soviet Union. Many stories have
appeared on the devastating impact of plant closings, bankruptcies, and home foreclosures on families and communities in
these parts of the world. Much less coverage has been devoted to the meltdown's impact on people in the developing
world. As the crisis spreads to the poorer countries, however, it's likely that people in these areas will experience
hardships every bit as severe as those in the wealthier countries -- and, in many cases, far worse.The greatest worry
is that most of the gains achieved in eradicating poverty over the last decade or so will be wiped out, forcing tens or
hundreds of millions of people from the working class and the lower rungs of the middle class back into the penury
from which they escaped. Equally worrisome is the risk of food scarcity in these areas, resulting in widespread
malnutrition, hunger, and starvation. All this is sure to produce vast human misery, sickness, and death, but could
also result in social and political unrest of various sorts, including riot, rebellion, and ethnic strife.The president,
Congress, or the mainstream media are not, for the most part, discussing these perils. As before, public interest remains
focused on the ways in which the crisis is affecting the United States and the other major industrial powers. But the World
Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and U.S. intelligence officials, in three recent reports, are paying increased
attention to the prospect of a second economic shockwave, this time affecting the developing world.