Question

Assignment Details Scenario: While reading a news article on your favorite athletic shoes, you are surprised to learn the company uses child labor in Pakistan. Living in the United States, it is hard to imagine children working in factories. What is child labor? According to Fairtrade International, child labor is “work that is harmful to a child’s physical and mental health and wellbeing, and/or interferes with their education, leisure and development” (2017). The exploitation of child labor continues to be an enormous human rights issue in much of the developing world. Please review the following sites before beginning the assignment: International Labor Organization Statistics on Child Labor Human Rights Watch Focus your discussion on the following: What are some aspects of globalization and capitalism that have contributed to the economic abuse of children in developing countries? In your opinion and based on your research, what can be done to end this problem?

Answer 1

The term “child labour” is often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. It refers to work that:

• is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and
• interferes with their schooling by: depriving them of the opportunity to attend school; obliging them to leave school prematurely; or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.

The worst forms of child labour involves children being enslaved, separated from their families, exposed to serious hazards and illnesses and/or left to fend for themselves on the streets of large cities – often at a very early age. Whether or not particular forms of “work” can be called “child labour” depends on the child’s age, the type and hours of work performed, the conditions under which it is performed and the objectives pursued by individual countries. The answer varies from country to country, as well as among sectors within countries.

Globalization and child labor interact in two basic ways. First, globalization may increase the employment and earnings opportunities available to poor households in developing countries. Changes in local labor markets from globalization may increase or decrease child labor. Second, globalization increases the influence of rich countries in the domestic policies of the developing world. Globalization can enhance employment and earnings in developing countries because of inflows of foreign investment or increases in the value of a developing country’s export products. When a country opens to international markets, foreign investment often (but not always) enters the country. This leads to increases in the demand for local labor and hence higher wages. In addition, many of today's developing countries have comparative advantage in agriculture, and integration into international markets may increase the price of the export product to international levels. Thus, trade liberalization may increase employment and wages in these agricultural export sectors. These changes in developing country labor markets stemming from globalization could increase child labor. Increased earning opportunities may increase the demand for child labor and the wages paid to children. Indirectly, increased earnings opportunities to parents may change the types of work performed by parents. Children may be forced to take over some of the activities usually performed by adults within their household. Alternatively, globalization induced improvements in earnings opportunities can reduce child labor. If poverty drives child labor, children work either for the income from work or because they cannot afford school fees. When one child makes more as a result of globalization, other children may be able to stop working and attend school. Moreover, increased parental earnings may help parents reduce the work that children perform. Parents can buy substitutes for goods previously produced by children, or they can use their increased income to substitute for the money previously earned by children. Hence, globalization can help parents in poor countries stop child labor without foreign intervention.