Globalization,Maquilas, NAFTA, and the State

Abstract

This article examines the latest wave of neoliberalism and globalization through its impact on border regions of the US and Mexico, especially the urban sprawl and squalor that has resulted from the manufacturing centers in Mexico known as maquilas. The maquilas , typically non-Mexican owned, take advantage of cheap Mexican labor and proximity to the US markets to find a niche in the new globalization. However, the pollution, corruption, violence, heavy-handed control of labor, and vulnerability to even cheaper labor in Asia has caused a wide array of very serious problems for the peoples who left their homes in other parts of Mexico and who actually work in the maquilas. These workers in the globalized world live lives quite different from the ‘promised land’ that was supposed to be achieved through further globalization and neoliberalism.