Industrial Districts and Migrant Labour in Italy
| Published date | 01 June 2007 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.2007.00615.x |
| Author | Jacqueline Andall |
| Date | 01 June 2007 |
Industrial Districts and Migrant Labour
in Italy
Jacqueline Andall
Abstract
Both the flexibility of labour and wider sociocultural issues have historically
been identified as important dimensions of the economic success of Italy’s
industrial districts. Increasing numbers of labour migrants from Africa, Asia
and Eastern Europe are now working in industrial districts and living in local
communities previously characterized as socially cohesive. Immigration status,
Italian employment legislation and the micro-level conditions prevailing in dis-
tricts appear as key issues affecting employment relationships for labour
migrants, and the social cohesiveness seen to contribute to the success of indus-
trial districts is being undermined through the treatment of labour migrants as
people outside the national Italian community in terms of rights and other
markers of citizenship.
1. Introduction
Recent research into Italy’s industrial districts has addressed how globaliza-
tion is challenging the traditional organization of the districts. Authors have
questioned the very survival of the districts in the new globalized economy
(Berger and Locke 2000) and much attention has been paid to the trend to
outsource production abroad (Marini 2004; Parolini and Visconti 2003).
Contemporary global migration trends constitute another facet of the glo-
balized economy, and scholars such as Murat and Paba (2003) have sought to
draw links between the outsourcing of production and the use of migrant
labour within districts. While they recognize that both choices can usefully
reduce the cost of labour, they question whether, in the long term, the
employment of migrant labour within districts decreases Italy’s competitive
advantage as a developed country.1My focus addresses a different question
and that is what impact does labour migration have on traditional employ-
ment relationships within districts? Both employment relationships and the
relative novelty of African, Asian and East European migrants’ employment
Jacqueline Andall is at the University of Bath.
British Journal of Industrial Relations
45:2 June 2007 0007–1080 pp. 285–308
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2007. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd,
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
within districts are understudied dimensions of the literature on industrial
districts. Here I examine the reasons behind the demand for migrant labour
and the nature of existing working conditions and employment relationships
within one specific district: the leather industrial district of Arzignano, a
comune of the province of Vicenza situated in the Veneto region in north-east
Italy.
Locke (1995, 1996) emphasizes the micro-level as a useful explanatory
device to understand the different modes of industrial politics not only within
nation states but also within the same industrial sector. Within this frame-
work, the sociopolitical characteristics of specific local economies shape the
decisions and strategies of both the local unions and the managers of firms.
Thus, although certain common characteristics are frequently attributed to
small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) within an industrial district para-
digm, the nature of the local political environment as well as the organization
of the productive process are both factors which determine and affect
employment relations. The decentralization of industrial relations in Italy in
the 1990s has led to new forms of local and regional concertation (Giaccone
2002; Vatta 2001) and studies of these practices have identified different
regional models in the main industrial district regions. In Tuscany and Emilia
Romagna, a public-oriented model is seen to prevail while in the Veneto
region, the model is primarily oriented towards the market (Giaccone 2002).
Building on these perspectives, the assumption would be that labour
migrants incorporated into different industrial districts would encounter
diverse social and employment relationships. Furthermore, given the consid-
erable ethnic diversity of Italy’s migrant population, one should not expect
these employment relationships to be shaped only by the characteristics of
the industrial districts themselves. The characteristics of the labour migrants
settled within a certain district are also an important dimension. Even com-
paring a few African migratory groups, such as Ghanaians, Senegalese and
Cape Verdeans, one can observe differentiation in terms of migratory
histories, employment location and gender balance which has led in turn to
significant variation in their mobility, settlement, employment patterns and
general conditions (Andall 1999, 2006; Ceschi 2005; Riccio 2005). The sig-
nificant Chinese involvement in the industrial district of Prato in Tuscany as
both entrepreneurs and workers is quite different to the example of the
Ghanaians studied here for example.2
Labour migration might appear as the very antithesis to the local devel-
opment district model, understood as a process both sustained by local
resources and by the notion of a local community (Bortolotti 1996).
However, in the Veneto region, the Catholic postwar subculture has meant
that active social and institutional participation is acknowledged as a value in
the community. This has led to strong social solidarity and ‘deep rejection of
conflict excess’ perceived as disruptive for the unified nature underpinning
the social system of the district (Soli 1990: 170). Nevertheless, Guolo (2001:
11) has noted potential for social conflict as a result of labour migration into
local communities that tend towards being monocultural. Other factors,
286 British Journal of Industrial Relations
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2007.
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