Child Labor and Global Economy by Hugo Merino
Introduction
Multinational companies use developing countries to produce their products. In order to decrease production cost, global companies may decide to outsource their production to developing countries where in some cases, child labor is used.
Economic globalization, global governance and international laws are critical factors that affect the use of child labor in countries such as India, Bangladesh and China (Fors, 2014).
Using 5 different scholar articles, I am going to discus how the outcomes of global markets affect the utilization of children as workforce in developing countries using relationship between corporations, governance, globalization and international laws with child labor. Relationship between corporations in global child labor Seeking for maximizing the profits, companies take decisions that could affect the reputation and brand image (Nodoushani, 2013) such outsourcing the production to developing countries where child labor is involved in the process. Most of the companies that follow this strategy prioritize short term benefits knowing that if needed, in he future they could spend more money defending the company for using child labor. (Bhaskaran, Nathan, Phillips & Choragud, 2014) In the garment industry, the total cost of outsourcing just represents between 5% to 10% of the total value (Bhaskaran, Nathan, Phillips & Choragud, 2014). Therefore, for multinational companies the outsourcing system is lucrative and do not represent further legal issues because the local producer is responsible for the employment and conditions inside the work place. According to Nodoushani, 2013, customers as one of the main stakeholders, should force the multinational companies to stop the use of child labor and slavery by do not buying their products or demanding transparency in the outsourcing process. Additionally, multinational companies in order to increase the market share and the shareholders value, create “child labor free zones” with the help of NGO’s that firstly, force the outsourcing company to do not use children in the process and then increase the brand image of the multinational companies as corporate responsible for their production. (Bhaskaran et al., 2014) Relationship between global governance and child labor Another critical aspect of globalization and child labor is global governance, government laws and policies are designed with ambiguity, permitting some of those processes due to the deregulation (Bhaskaran et al., 2014). This deregulation related to child labor in fact provokes the lack of representation of children in politics. Moreover, the vagueness of global governance involving economically active children and child labor creates a background where corporations can take advantage of the situation and skip the legal consequences of subcontracting companies that involve child labor. Civil society organizations face the problematic between the difference of children exploitation and children economically independent (Holzscheiter, 2015). Furthermore, some countries like India allow …show more content…
According to Fors, 2014, the correlation between these two variables is significantly negative, therefore, the factors that increase the globalization, such as global political right, GDP or population, decrease the number of children exploited as a labor force. Social globalization has a decisive role in the negative correlation between those variables because of the increasing ability among nations and market to transfer information and enhance the social network that reduce the cost of developing skills esteemed in global markets. On the other hand, the correlation between foreign direct investment and number of children used as workforce is …show more content…
The rise on wages increases the pressure for production with the consequently surge of final production and competitiveness, allowing the company to enhance the global performance.
Relationship between international laws and child labor
Lastly, the international and local policies play a fundamental function in fighting child labor; the government policies in some nations are customized in order to leave open different possibilities to favor specific sector like garment industry in India (Phillips et al., 2014).
Even the U.S department of labor, created a vast number of regulations and policies against child labor globally. The deregulation and the local law in some countries tolerate the employment of children in specific circumstances that are used by the local companies in order to reduce expenses (Nodoushani, 2013).
Moreover, the right of schooling is fundamental in developing countries to develop the levels of education among the children and reduce the child labor. According to Bhaskaran et al., 2014 increasing the years of mandatory education could decrease the child
Introduction
Multinational companies use developing countries to produce their products. In order to decrease production cost, global companies may decide to outsource their production to developing countries where in some cases, child labor is used.
Economic globalization, global governance and international laws are critical factors that affect the use of child labor in countries such as India, Bangladesh and China (Fors, 2014).
Using 5 different scholar articles, I am going to discus how the outcomes of global markets affect the utilization of children as workforce in developing countries using relationship between corporations, governance, globalization and international laws with child labor. Relationship between corporations in global child labor Seeking for maximizing the profits, companies take decisions that could affect the reputation and brand image (Nodoushani, 2013) such outsourcing the production to developing countries where child labor is involved in the process. Most of the companies that follow this strategy prioritize short term benefits knowing that if needed, in he future they could spend more money defending the company for using child labor. (Bhaskaran, Nathan, Phillips & Choragud, 2014) In the garment industry, the total cost of outsourcing just represents between 5% to 10% of the total value (Bhaskaran, Nathan, Phillips & Choragud, 2014). Therefore, for multinational companies the outsourcing system is lucrative and do not represent further legal issues because the local producer is responsible for the employment and conditions inside the work place. According to Nodoushani, 2013, customers as one of the main stakeholders, should force the multinational companies to stop the use of child labor and slavery by do not buying their products or demanding transparency in the outsourcing process. Additionally, multinational companies in order to increase the market share and the shareholders value, create “child labor free zones” with the help of NGO’s that firstly, force the outsourcing company to do not use children in the process and then increase the brand image of the multinational companies as corporate responsible for their production. (Bhaskaran et al., 2014) Relationship between global governance and child labor Another critical aspect of globalization and child labor is global governance, government laws and policies are designed with ambiguity, permitting some of those processes due to the deregulation (Bhaskaran et al., 2014). This deregulation related to child labor in fact provokes the lack of representation of children in politics. Moreover, the vagueness of global governance involving economically active children and child labor creates a background where corporations can take advantage of the situation and skip the legal consequences of subcontracting companies that involve child labor. Civil society organizations face the problematic between the difference of children exploitation and children economically independent (Holzscheiter, 2015). Furthermore, some countries like India allow …show more content…
According to Fors, 2014, the correlation between these two variables is significantly negative, therefore, the factors that increase the globalization, such as global political right, GDP or population, decrease the number of children exploited as a labor force. Social globalization has a decisive role in the negative correlation between those variables because of the increasing ability among nations and market to transfer information and enhance the social network that reduce the cost of developing skills esteemed in global markets. On the other hand, the correlation between foreign direct investment and number of children used as workforce is …show more content…
The rise on wages increases the pressure for production with the consequently surge of final production and competitiveness, allowing the company to enhance the global performance.
Relationship between international laws and child labor
Lastly, the international and local policies play a fundamental function in fighting child labor; the government policies in some nations are customized in order to leave open different possibilities to favor specific sector like garment industry in India (Phillips et al., 2014).
Even the U.S department of labor, created a vast number of regulations and policies against child labor globally. The deregulation and the local law in some countries tolerate the employment of children in specific circumstances that are used by the local companies in order to reduce expenses (Nodoushani, 2013).
Moreover, the right of schooling is fundamental in developing countries to develop the levels of education among the children and reduce the child labor. According to Bhaskaran et al., 2014 increasing the years of mandatory education could decrease the child