Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2019, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (3): 123-153.

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Labor Export,Transnational Production Politics and the Formation of Exploitation Relationship-A Case Study of Chinese Workers in Japan

LIU Xinghua1, WANG Yong2   

  1. 1 School of Marxism, Huazhong University of Science and Technology;
    2 School of Marxism, Hubei University
  • Online:2019-05-20 Published:2019-05-20

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Abstract:

In the context of globalization,labor export from developing countries to developed countries has shaped a relationship of exploitation between employers and employees. This study presents the case of Chinese migrant workers' overtime pay in Japan and explores the formation mechanism of the exploitation using the analytic framework of "transnational production politics". Transnational migrant workers often see overtime as an indispensable opportunity to generate extra income to support families back home. This need is being taken advantage of by employers who habitually reduce overtime pay or not pay at all. Overtime pay often becomes a focal point of labor conflict. Because of the limited protection for migrant workers in the labor law of the host countries,the rights granted to employers by the foreign labor system,the competition from migrant workers of other nationalities and the selective asylum policy provided by transnational intermediaries,Chinese migrants suffer a dilemma of either surrendering to the low overtime pay or loosing overtime work,or even their job all together. Whether to resist or surrender,it seems that the outcome is all the same for migrant workers:they lose and employers win. This transnational production polity exercises its "market authoritarian". Elements such as constraints of the foreign labor system,loopholes in the system used by the employer,global surplus labors and separation of maintenance and renewal process in labor reproduction mode,reflect the transnational production politics peculiar to international contract labor mobility. It becomes an important mechanism for the re-emergence of the forced exploitation of capital in developed capitalist countries. Unlike the exploitative relationship between local workers and employers in developed countries,the exploitation between migrant workers and employers is born out of the imbalanced development between countries. Migrant workers not only have no protection of the host country's welfare system,but also are controlled by strict laws regarding foreign labor,and threatened by competition from other migrant workers. All this has put employers in a strong advantageous position in conflict.

Key words: labor export, exploitation relationship, overtime benefits, transnational production politics, labor control