Working Lives and Labour Agency in the Mauritian Garment Industry

This paper explores the lived experiences of Mauritian nationals and migrants working in the garment industry in Mauritius, a country that is often considered to be a successful development latecomer since it was able to achieve structural transformation through industrialization in the post-independence period (Stiglitz, 2011). With help from feminist political economy and a social reproduction approach (Mezzadri et al. 2021), I find that gender and migrant segmentation of work have led to contrasting everyday lived experiences. This relates to literature from other contexts demonstrating that social upgrading of industries can take various forms and affect groups of workers differently (Barrientos 2019) whereby some workers experience improved rights and enabling conditions whereas others do not (Barrientos 2011). These, in combination with local social relations, then affect the abilities and strategies that workers have in contesting these issues on the micro level and as a collective (Baglioni 2018). As an example, migrant workers (most of whom are males, increasingly from Bangladesh) are on guestworker contracts and live in dorms, which imply very different caring and provisioning obligations compared to Mauritian women who have traditionally dominated the industry. This suggests that gender and migrant status, as well as the interconnections between production and social reproduction (Marslev et al. 2022) should be carefully considered for a more holistic and relational understanding of worker lives (Arslan 2021) and labour agency in the industry. Those Mauritian firms that have survived the competitive landscape of global capitalism have all recruited migrants with active support from the state. Some firms have shifted toward more technology-use and others have relocated their most labour-intensive production abroad. While industrialists claim they cannot find Mauritian workers, it appears that the working conditions - including mandatory overtime in combination with lived experiences of sudden factory closures - appear to make up some of the overlooked reasons related to social reproduction needs. In fact, worker experiences bring to light a more nuanced story than that presented solely at the macro nation- and industry-wide level. This paper explores how (re)production has shaped outcomes for both female and male Mauritian and migrant workers. It adopts a narrative research approach and is based on four months of fieldwork, where I conducted work story interviews with current and former workers, workers’ activists and trade union representatives about the nature of work and employment in and around the industry, key events and developments. The interview material is complemented with interviews with other stakeholders representing capital and the state, as well as with secondary sources. I hope to be considered for this workshop to engage in and to learn more about current social reproduction debates related to the Global South, as well as how they relate to different classes of labour (Bernstein 2010), which I believe is of relevance to my paper.