Globalization is an inevitable phenomenon that stretches across geographic boundaries, shapes global economies, and permeates communities around the world. This predominantly Western-led movement of global integration yields numerous benefits to societies, such as economic growth, cultural exchange, and job creation. However, upon closer examination of countries in the global south that experience the reverberating effects of globalization, we realize there are negative byproducts of this movement that are often overlooked. Through an analysis of the film Maquilapolis: City of Factories, this essay will highlight how Western-driven globalization perpetuates labor inequality in the global south, unveil the challenges facing these workers, and
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This is exemplified in the film Maquilapolis, where the American corporations relocate their factories to Tijuana for cheaper labor, allowing them to reduce the costs of production at the expense of Maquiladora workers, who are treated as “units of human capital” rather than individuals with families and aspirations (Funari, 2006). Furthermore, this lack of consideration, coupled with the enforcement of the Washington Consensus Strategy as the sole developmental framework for countries in the global south, has created a systemic flaw wherein the exclusive international organizations controlled by an assembly of elitist countries have no incentive to abandon or reform the current system (Stiglitz, 2006). This institutional infrastructure has created a Western-dominant environment that allows inequality to persist, disregarding the perspectives and concerns of individuals from the global south. The effect of this dominance is especially observed through the inefficiencies of the transnational labor
This is exemplified in the film Maquilapolis, where the American corporations relocate their factories to Tijuana for cheaper labor, allowing them to reduce the costs of production at the expense of Maquiladora workers, who are treated as “units of human capital” rather than individuals with families and aspirations (Funari, 2006). Furthermore, this lack of consideration, coupled with the enforcement of the Washington Consensus Strategy as the sole developmental framework for countries in the global south, has created a systemic flaw wherein the exclusive international organizations controlled by an assembly of elitist countries have no incentive to abandon or reform the current system (Stiglitz, 2006). This institutional infrastructure has created a Western-dominant environment that allows inequality to persist, disregarding the perspectives and concerns of individuals from the global south. The effect of this dominance is especially observed through the inefficiencies of the transnational labor