Sweating It in the Brazilian Garment Industry

Abstract

In Sao Paulo, Brazil, in the neighborhoods of Bras, Pan, and Bom Retiro, undocumented Bolivian immigrants work for long hours in primarily Koreanand Bolivian-owned clandestine garment workshops for little more than food and lodging. Koreans and Bolivians have migrated to Brazil to become involved in the garment industry. The number of Bolivian migrants to Sao Paulo has continued to increase in spite of the unemployment rate of 19 to 20 percent for the past few years. I shall examine this situation, exploring the history of Korean and Bolivian migration to Brazil and the relationship between sweatshops and the industrial restructuring associated with economic globalization. Many developed and developing countries have seen a resurgence of small-scale production in sweatshops, households, or small industries. The growth of high-end services, particularly in cities that are globally connected such as Sao Paulo, has been paralleled by a casualization of work in small businesses operating on the fringes of the formal economy and selfemployment, part-time work, homework, and sweated labor in such areas as apparel, construction, retail, and cleaning (Sassen, 1991; Pochmann, 1998; Cacciamali, 1998). Industrial production is increasingly based on internal and external forms of flexibilization. Although work in Sao Paulo has often been precarious, even during the height of institutional control over production, the increase in employment without signed working papers such as that

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