The moral challenge of expatriate employment in developing countries

Abstract

This paper contributes to the discourse on expatriate employment in developing countries. The aim is to determine whether or not the practice is morally objectionable and if so, to point out the most plausible way to account for the moral problem involved. In this regard, I examine four arguments, namely, that in developing countries, expatriate employment is morally wrong because it 1) entrenches the injustice of wage discrimination, 2) produces undesirable outcomes, 3) disregards contextual aspirations and historical memory and 4) is a tool of external domination and control. I analyse these arguments to show that they are insufficient accounts for the moral impropriety of expatriate employment in developing countries. To this end, I provide an outline of an argument I consider capable of accounting for the moral question in this context. This argument focuses on the notion that the moral problem of expatriate employment in developing countries is the unequal or arbitrary distribution of power among employees. The moral wrong in this, I argue, consists in the failure to respect the universal moral equality of people.