Global Breaking News - Monday, December 23, 2024

What Standards of Child Labor Should Apply Overseas?
Child labor is condemned as immoral and exploitative, but despite pledges to crack down, international corporations continue to struggle to prevent minors from being hired at their contract manufacturers overseas. Some say such rules prevent poor families from improving their lives. Should Western child labor standards apply in developing countries?
* child labor = 미성년 노동/ condemn = 규탄(비탄)하다/ immoral = 비도덕적인, 부도덕한/ exploitative = 착취하는/ crack down (on ~) = (~에 대해) 엄중 단속하다

 서양의 미성년 노동의 기준이 개발 도상국에도 적용이 되어야 하나요?

1. Washington Must Press Companies to Act
Rich countries must get their corporations to stop perpetuating a race to the bottom that encourages poor countries to use child labor.

2. Laws Can Be Counterproductive in a Weak Nation
Restrictions can lower wages and force more children to work. Payments to families and education assistance are more productive.

3. Offer Opportunities, Not Exploitation
There are ways for companies to provide opportunities for young workers. Some companies have adopted apprenticeship programs.

4. Western Pressure Reduces Crucial Local Action
Sanctions on export trade will hurt support for wider reductions on child labor, leading children to even worse jobs.


Sample Essay

Western Pressure Reduces Crucial Local Action to End Child Labor

The historical experience of the now-industrialized countries offers clear lessons for how to overcome the child labor problem in today’s developing nations. In the late 19th century, Western countries introduced stringent restrictions on child labor coupled with compulsory schooling laws. Within a few decades, child labor went from norm to rare exception, and schooling became near-universal.

The historical evidence shows that neither foreign pressure nor humanitarian concerns played an important role. Rather, the key factor driving reform was pressure from the labor movement. Unions were concerned about children competing with adult workers for factory work and thereby pushing down wages. Just as unions regularly oppose increased immigration of foreign workers, they became concerned about child labor once children started to compete for the same jobs as unskilled adults.

A testament to the role of unions is that regulation of child labor focused on areas where adults and children compete for the same jobs (such as in manufacturing), whereas there was little regulation in areas where children raise the productivity of adult workers (such as family farming).

Developing countries will be able to overcome the child labor problem only if there is sufficient local political support for imposing and enforcing strict regulations. Unfortunately, our research shows that pressure by Western countries through product boycotts or imposition of labor standards is likely to undercut the drive for reform.

Sanctions by the West usually focus on export sectors (such as textiles and manufacturing) where children and adult compete for the same jobs. If the West succeeds in displacing children from these sectors, adult workers will have little incentive to actively campaign for further restrictions on child labor. Many children will work on the family farm or in other informal employment instead, where there is less competition with adults. In addition, sanctions reduce the overall income of families in developing countries, thereby worsening poverty and increasing economic dependency on child labor. For both reasons, pressure by the West through punitive trade policy undermines local political support for eliminating child labor within developing countries.

Unrestricted trade is a better route toward creating the necessary local conditions for overcoming the child labor problem. In addition, some developing countries have had considerable success with programs that use cash transfers to encourage parents to send their kids to school (such as Oportunidades in Mexico). If the West would like to contribute more directly to the fight against child labor, supporting such education-focused programs is a promising way to reduce economic dependency on child labor and increase parents’ incentives for supporting child labor restrictions.