In the second half of her book, Prof Chin goes further into describing the differences between Korean and Chinese shops. These chapters focus more on the ethnical choices the owners of these shops make when hiring the workers and how the hiring process works.
As an overall impression, I got a stronger and stronger feeling that Chinese sweatshops are “socially warmer”, in the sense that it could even feel like family to work there. In fact, as I noticed at the MOCA, the Chinese culture values the community and the social aspect of their lives a lot, so the structures of the shops reflect this philosophy. Many of the testimonies in the book cite Chinese workers and owners saying that they do favors to each other and “help each other”, for example bringing in a family member and training them in natural exchange of smaller pieces of garment, which equal more work done and more money.
On the other hand, Korean shops are way colder in that sense, they actually do feel like a workplace. Because it is more structured and controlled, there is not much room for favors and family feelings: exact clocking in and out times must be met because the Koreans know they need to meet the standards of the various government agencies coming in to check on them. The fact that they also hire Hispanics from different ethnical backgrounds rather than Koreans, further detaches the workers from a feeling of togetherness. Some of these Hispanics interviewed admit that they are emotionally detached from their job and they take it as simply a way to go in, make money and then leave.
A similarity between the two types of shops, however, is that they are both very closed systems, especially in the way new workers are found. While the Chinese shops favor family and friends referrals from the workers, the Koreans are very picky in who they hire, and things like “the corner’ become places where Hispanics find out about these jobs in the market.
I also thought it was very interesting how there was an underlining factor of racism and stereotypes towards the African Americans and Puerto Ricans, seen as lazy and not capable of serious commitment. After all, all these groups are immigrant groups, could a few generations of difference or even just a little more naturalization benefits really set such a huge gap between ethnic groups?
Sara Camnasio
