Snippet on Globalism

The economic, political, and social interconnectedness and interdependence among societies in the world we are faced with is not new, but its effects are still being understood. Global trade and intercommunication between countries far apart from one another is now seen as normal. More recently, the discussion revolving around the offshoring of jobs has been brought towards the forefront of American politics. However, due to how globalization has made it easier and more rewarding for companies to offshore, outsource, and insource jobs, the offshoring, outsourcing, and insourcing of jobs is likely to stick around unless viable alternatives are made. Further, in the global scale of things, we find surrogacy work is also a job that can be offshored as a cheaper alternative to domestic surrogacy work. So too has the human reproductive process become a business.

From a business perspective, the world can be seen as a pool of resources. The people in various countries are a sort of global workforce or a potential workforce. By offshoring jobs, companies can recruit from this workforce pool or pool of human capital in a way that is more affordable than recruiting in, say, America. As Skipper (2007) states, technically any job that impersonally delivers can be offshored. Certain service and IT jobs, for example, can easily be offshored because the product they deliver can be impersonally delivered unlike the work of a therapist which must be personally delivered. Due to America’s immigration policy as well as labor laws, the jobs that are offshored are done so because recruiting people who are more likely to work offshored jobs for lower pay in America is difficult. Recruiting illegal immigrants to work below minimum wage is also illegal. Workers that would likely work for less are also difficult to recruit from the pool of immigrants coming into America.

The preference system in application process for immigration deters low-skilled workers from entering America legally. First preference visas are given to highly skilled/educated individuals who are likely professors and researchers (O’Sullivan, 2012). Those that qualify for the first preference are able to be granted visas without much delay. Second or third preference visas require labor certification. This certification includes a qualifier that prevents or deters individuals applying for a visa hoping to work a job that can be filled by “eligible and qualified American workers” (O’Sullivan, 2012). However, to apply for the labor certification, one must also fulfill the Program Electronic Review Management which has other qualifiers that deter or prevent the typical low-skilled laborer from meeting the requirements. To be granted a visa under the third preference can take up to six years as well. These among other reasons are why it is difficult to recruit from immigrant labor under the second preference visas. This could partially explain as to why offshoring occurs: low-skilled workers can be found elsewhere.

One example of low-skilled work that can be offshored are surrogate mothers. People from India and across the others are able to rent the womb of Indian women to provide them a child. The cost of surrogacy is about half of what it is in India when compared to America (Rudrappa, 2015). This price is likely the reason why people look towards India to find surrogate mothers, effectively offshoring the work of what some women in America are willing to do. The surrogate mothers get paid about the same amount of money they would earn by working three years in a garment factory but with better living conditions. The work in the garment factory is quite often coupled with health issues and harassment from supervisors. Meanwhile, surrogate mothers are given a dorm, supervision, and other necessities in order to make sure the birthing process goes well. This is what makes being a surrogate mother seem appealing as opposed to working in a garment factory. Nonetheless, the work associated with being a surrogate mother is not without its downsides. C-sections, birthing complications, and other side-effects are made possible by being a surrogate mother. Some of the surrogate mothers are not able to separate their emotional investment in the children they eventually birth, and this causes emotional pain.

In a globalist world, even the process of birthing can be offshored because the task of giving birth is not necessarily one that must be personally delivered. America’s restrictive immigration only makes offshoring look more appealing to companies able to offshore. However, the workers in America lose jobs because of offshoring and the laborers that benefit from the offshoring also are negatively affected by the poor working conditions often associated with labor that can outsourced. Even in the case of being a surrogate mother for an American couple, there are benefits and negatives associated with taking such a task.