‘Prison labour’ and opportunity are two sides of the same coin
Technology Department
Despite the human suffering, Dr. Amin Alhassan argues China does benefit from exploitative practices. Even as the West cries about human labour abuse, he says, Chinese workers are happily taking those jobs. “This is the other side of offshoring,” says Alhassan. “We call it prison labour; they call it opportunity.”
Chinese workers “are happy to earn even a dollar an hour.”
Many workers at Foxconn have loans, from school and elsewhere. This complicates the reports of suicides at the factory.
“A worker might have to work at Foxconn to pay [his loan] off. Not being able to pay it, he commits suicide.” Sure, Alhassan says, some workers might be miserable, but the majority would rather have a job than be starving on the streets, unemployed.
Dr. Alhassan urges people to “contextualize things.” Labour conditions might not be right, but sometimes they are necessary, he says.
“I’ve gone abroad and seen children working in other countries. I don’t like it, but they have to work, otherwise I know they’ll starve,” Alhassan says.
There is no excuse for unjust suffering in any workplace. However, as tough as it may be, Alhassan says observers in the West “have to take [unfair labour] in context.”
With files from Hufsa Tahir
