The compound labor regime of Chinese construction projects in Ethiopia

Abstract

This paper unpacks the compound labor regime (CLR) of Chinese construction projects in Africa to investigate the spatial politics of management strategy and workers’ agency. It contends that such a unique form of “living at work”, as illustrated by African mining compounds and Chinese workers’ dorms, represents a fluid assemblage of processes and relationships at transnational, national, and local scales. An empirical case study on one Chinese infrastructure construction project in Ethiopia highlights how Chinese CLR in Africa is co-produced by the established industrial practices in China, the regulatory contexts of the host African country, and the situated strategies of expatriate and local workers. Specifically, the seemingly integrated CLR is internally fragmented due to the use of subcontractors and outsourced labor – two prevalent practices in China’s construction sector – as well as the employment of both expatriate and local workers. This fragmentation is inscribed in the spatial configuration of the compound and reflected by the varied managerial mentalities and strategies, which lead to two sub-regimes of management-labor relations: negotiated despotism upon expatriate workers and cautious precarity upon local recruits. Expatriate workers are subject to socio-spatial immobility, overtime work, delayed payment, and substandard logistics; but they can negotiate conditions of work based on their socio-technical positions. Local workers, despite the lack of job security and work-related benefits, enjoy some institutional protection and intra-group solidarity. The multiple forms of strength and weakness experienced by workers underline the importance to nuance the complexity and contradictions of Chinese investment in Africa.