After my re-reading my first post regarding Sewing Women, I feel that I focused to much on the benefits of working in the Chinese factories.  Sewing Women makes it clear that despite the family-friendly atmosphere present in the Chinese factories, many workers were exploited by the system.  The benefits of working in the Chinese factories as opposed to the Korean factories were very evident.  The Chinese laborers were working with family members that shared a culture, history, and language.  They also often lived with their own families and were given time to be part of the family-unit.  They were usually unionized, and had more rights as workers.  They could work at home, and could work extra to be payed more.

Given these factors, it would appear that working in a Chinese factory was vastly superior to working in the Korean-owned factories.  Yet, the close relations between workers in the Chinese factories gave rise to numerous problems for employees.  Out of respect for the factory owners, who were of the same cultural heritage and possibly even family members, female workers were unlikely to demand better pay or working conditions.  The Chinese women were expected to train new employees (potential workers in Korean factories would usually not be hired if they were untrained) and they were also expected to find new employees by recommending the factory to family members.  Workers would also be held informally responsible for the performance of the workers that they recommend to their employers.  As part of a union and complex social structure it was also less likely for a Chinese worker to move from factory to factory than it was for a Dominican immigrant working in the Korean factory system.  In many ways, the situation of hispanic workers was actually preferable to that of the Chinese, at least in the sense that they were afforded more freedom in which factory they wanted to work.

-Victor Rerick