Transnational Corporations and the Making of Global Labor Markets

Abstract

By focusing on transnational corporations (TNCs) and suggesting that transnational mobility of capital is developing a global labor migration regime, we studied the case of Foxconn in China and Europe. Moving beyond the labor market perspective, we focus on the production sphere, which is engrained in global production networks, and we disclose TNCs’ local production and control regimes as an outcome of firm-specific management practices due to its spatial fixes. By tracking the expansion of Foxconn from China to Europe, we aim to make visible how the current transnationalization of capital reveals the inadequacy of established oppositional topographies whereby China in particular, as inferred by the label “Made in China,” is perceived as opposite to Europe and synonymous with low wages, excessive overtime, and exploitative working conditions. By adopting the analytical lens of mobility, we also challenge the established views in migration literature on the role of the state in controlling migration and tying workers to employers. The state, we suggest, is still an important actor as far as it facilitates capital accumulation by establishing and maintaining differential wage areas for capital to tap into. However, it is the transnational capital and firms’ position in the supply chain, rather than the state, that play a commanding role in directing cross-border migration and in shaping workforce segmentation.