Globalization in Mixtec Farm Workers, Alaskan Oil, and The PNW Fishing Industry
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Globalization has an effect on all parts of human life. From communication, governance,
finance, and industry, globalization plays a key role in all aspects of human life. This fact is as
evident as ever, as the speed of globalization accelerates exponentially with the advent of
instantaneous global communication and other technologies that connect the world more in the
twenty-first century than in any other century before. Scholte’s chapters Globalization and
Commoditization, Globalization and State Sovereignty, and Globalization and Social Inequality
expand on how globalization has effects on industry, people, and governance. These effects can
be reflected in the analysis of topics discussed in class such as the migration of Mixtec farm
workers, the rural fishing industry in the Pacific Northwest, and the competition for Alaskan Oil.
Specifically, the Mixtec farm workers can be analyzed through the lens of gender inequalities
due to globalization and national identities changing and flexible citizenship due to globalization.
The rural fishing industry can be examined by economic insecurities caused by increasing
globalization and increasing commodification caused by globalization. Finally, competition for
Alaskan Oil and greater competition in general because of globalization can be viewed through
Scholte’s analysis of capitalism shifting to “hypercapitalism” and how corporate entities are
gaining an increased role in governance, or as Scholte puts it, privatized governance.
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In recent decades, migration from Mexico to the United States has increased and
diversified. Mexican immigrants are no longer only settling in places with established migrant
communities, but have spread all over the continent. This increase and diversification has created
“new ethnic identities, transnational class sectors, and new definitions of community, nation, and
culture”(Lynn Stephen). According to Lynn Stephen, “Ong develops the concept of flexible
citizenship to explain how individuals as well as governments develop flexible notions of
belonging, citizenship, and sovereignty as strategies to accumulate capital and power” (Lynn
Stephens). This idea of “flexible citizenship” can be viewed through the lens of changing
national identities for many people that Scholte illustrates in Chapter 7. On page 231, Scholte
describes the changes in national identity to have “come increasingly to take substrate, transstate,
and suprastate forms” and that “many individuals have acquired a plurinational sense of self”
(Scholte, pg 231). I think that Scholte’s idea of a trans state national identity applies to the
identities many new Mexican immigrants to the United States take on. This trans state identity is
a direct effect of globalization and transnational migration. It also applies to the many different
citizenship statuses that migrants have in the United States. Many are undocumented in the
States, but with Mexican citizenship and some have dual citizenship, which would be the most
explicit form of a “trans state” identity.
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Another lens that Mexican immigrant workers can be analyzed from is Scholte’s ideas of
gender inequality caused by globalization. Many farm workers from Mexico work as divided
families. This is most common in the southern end of California, where men take on the risk of
migration into the U.S., while the rest of the family remains in Mexico in Baja California. This
causes disparities in the treatment of male and female workers due to working in two different
countries with different laws. According to Lynn Stephens, employment conditions in Baja are
“more conducive to the women’s dual role as wage earner and caregiver than in the United
States”(Lynn Stephens). This disparity actually undermines Scholte’s analysis that globalization
has exacerbated “structural subordination of women to men”(Scholte, pg334). While in many
areas this is true the gender inequalities between Mexican migrant workers are an exception to
this rule.
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Medium to small sized fisheries in the Pacific Northwest have been affected significantly
by increased globalization. It has caused increased competition in the fishing market and made
these smaller fisheries adapt to an increasingly competitive market. The paper Global Resources
and Market Impacts on U.S. Pacific Northwest Fisheries by Michael T. Morrissey examines two
fisheries in the Pacific Northwest and how they overcame new challenges presented by
globalization. Scholte discusses how globalization can have adverse effects on job security in
many ways. One way is the market forcing out smaller firms because they can’t keep up with the
increased production of larger firms, causing job losses at the smaller firms because they fail.
This is connected to the small fisheries discussed in the article because they were able to save the
jobs of their employees by adapting to the new market situation.
Morrissey describes the hardship faced by the West Coast troll caught albacore industry
as “large tuna canneries shifted resource purchases to foreign fishing operations that were
expanding in the Southern Pacific oceans”(Morrissey). The buyers of the tuna caught by the
West Coast industry moved to buying cheaper tuna from Southern Pacific industries. This is
reflected in Scholte’s idea of “greater organizational efficiency of accumulation”(Scholte pg
160). The canning companies prioritized their profits and the efficiency with which they could
create product, which caused them to move to buying tuna from the Southern Pacific. The local
industry was forced to “develop new markets, improve onboard handling and quality, and brand
their product differently from the traditional canned markets”(Morrissey) to maintain their
market share so they could stay in business. Globalization allowed the larger canning companies
to expand their market and resources, which caused the regional West Coast market they bought
from previously to adapt and change their practices to maintain their share of the tuna market.
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In the book Oil, Globalization, and the War for the Arctic Refuge, David M. Standlea
outlines a bleak future for the world, due to globalization and what he calls an “American-style
propagation of an unlimited economic “growth paradigm ""(Standlea). He claims this will lead to
a significant increase in wars fought over the natural resources of the world to fuel this unlimited
growth. He specifically singles out oil as being a resource most commonly fought over and
claims it will increase. In the book, he uses the specific case of the Arctic and Alaskan fight over
oil to further his point. One of the things he focuses on is the shift away from democratic and
representative government to the “co-optation” of government by corporate elites and their
interests. Scholte discusses a similar shift due to globalization in Chapter 6. He calls this “private
governance”. Scholte does not go as far as Standlea with this idea, but his analysis of
globalization necessitating governance beyond that of just national governmental bodies arrives
at the conclusion that private governance may be required by globalization. Standlea paints the
“co-optation” of government as a negative force, while Scholte sees this change from a more
moderate and objective perspective.
The increase in competition that Standlea describes in his book can be analyzed through
what Scholte coined “hypercapitalism” in Chapter 5. Scholte describes hypercapitalism as a new
form of capitalism that has “furthered much-enhanced accumulation”(Scholte pg160). This
enhanced accumulation can be seen as a cause of the greater competition for essential resources
for production that Standlea points to as the cause of much increased conflict over the world’s
resources.
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Globalization is present in all aspects of life. It is especially present in the twenty-first
century due to an increase in technology and industry that is capable of interconnecting the world
like never before. All industries are affected by globalization, including oil and fishing as
described above. The movement and actions of people are also affected, like the Mexican
immigrant workers that work in large numbers now in the Pacific Northwest and California. All
these causes and effects can be analyzed through Scholte’s ideas presented in his book.