Labour Exploitation Trafficking and Migrant Health

Nearly 350,000 Bolivians live in Argentina, 38 76.6 per cent of whom live in Buenos Aires. The Bolivian
community in Argentina grew by 32.4 per cent between 2001 and 2010, and is the second-largest
migrant community in Argentina, preceded only by Paraguay. In general, migrants make up 4.5 per
cent of Argentina’s population.
The National Programme for Employment Regularization, in force since 2003, strengthened the
state’s monitoring and inspection capacities, increased the number of inspectors, and expanded
computerization of the process. The Government set up a very active campaign of regularization
aiming to improve work quality while fighting against unregistered work. In 2004, Argentina made it
compulsory for employers to register their workers but also expanded the state’s oversight mechanisms
to ensure these provisions were fully enacted. 39 This has guided the inspection of companies, and
particularly of those with 5–50 employees, where the highest numbers of unregistered workers are
found. 40
The Integrated Plan to Reduce Non-registered Employment, led by the Ministry of Labour, Employment
and Social Security, was launched in September 2013; this Plan aimed to strengthen labour inspection,
plan specific interventions in critical sectors (domestic work, rural sector and the garment industry),
create a public registry of employers with labour sanctions, establish economic incentives for the
formalization of workers in microbusinesses, and promote awareness-raising campaigns on workers’
rights. 41 While the proportion of non-formal wage employment as part of total employment fell in
Argentina between 2003 and 2012, 42 the informal employment rate in Argentina remains high, at 33.6
per cent. South American migrants account for 52.9 per cent of informal employment in Argentina,
and Argentine workers 32.7 per cent. 43
The origin of the textile industry in Buenos Aires dates back to the 1960s, when Korean migrants
established themselves primarily in neighbourhoods in Bajo Flores (south of the city of Buenos Aires).
They worked in textile production with hired Bolivian migrant workers. After the 2001 economic crisis
in Argentina, the Korean textile workshops ceased to dominate the sector and Bolivians took over
as the primary business owners in the production and sale of textile products. 44 The small textile
workshops established by Bolivian owners are typically small warehouses or abandoned buildings
turned into places for people to work and live. Most do not have legal permits to work and therefore
function as clandestine workshops, remaining as hidden as possible: for example, some have bricked
up windows to prevent people from looking inside. A significant proportion of the owners of these
small workshops were previously textile workers themselves; they managed to save money for years
to buy machines to establish their own businesses. 45 Unlike the textile industry in other countries in
which the large firms legally outsource their production (such as those countries in southeast Asia,
Central America and the Caribbean where such garment factories can be found), Argentina’s labour
law does not allow for forced labour or piecework. 46 The global trend towards the reorganization of
production through various forms of outsourcing has made the textile sector increasingly flexible and
decentralized. This creates a scenario where major companies hire suppliers who distribute the work
to subcontractors, many of whom operate in the informal economy 47 in clandestine workshops, or
workshops that do not comply with all legal requirements. In this respect, the garment industry in
38
Argentine National Census of Population and Housing , 2010. Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos (Argentina).
39
Law 25,877.
40
Aranzazu Recalde, “Are We Now Equal?” Recent experiences and perceptions of South American migrants in Argentina under
MERCOSUR, doctoral thesis, Anthropology Department of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, University of Montréal. Available from
http://hdl.handle.net/1866/9055. Accessed 4 November 2015.
41
International Labour Organization Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, “Employment formalization in Argentina:
Recent developments and the road ahead”, Notes on Formalization, ILO, 2014, p. 10.
42
Ibid., p. 4.
43
International Labour Organization, Migraciones laborales en Argentina: Protección social, informalidad y heterogeneidades, ILO,
Buenos Aires, 2015.
44
Carolina Mera, La inmigración coreana en Buenos Aires: Historia y actualidad, paper, XI International Congress of the Latin American
Association of Students from Asia and Africa, Mexico City, 12–15 November 2003.
45
Goldberg, “Las Condiciones de Trabajo en los Talleres Textiles en Buenos Aires, factores de riesgo e impacto en la salud enfermedad de
los trabajadores”. Superintendencia de Riesgos de Trabajo de la Nación. 2012.
46
Ibid.
47
Roberto Benencia, “El infierno del trabajo esclavo: La contracara de las 'exitosas' economías étnicas”, Avá, no. 15 (2009), pp. 43–72.
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