The Ethiopian developmental state and struggles over the reproduction of young migrant women’s labor at the Hawassa Industrial Park

Abstract

Tens of thousands of young Ethiopian women have migrated from small towns and rural areas to work in the Hawassa Industrial Park (HIP), where working conditions and wages are far below their expectations. Low wages and a high cost of living mean that workers face severe challenges in meeting their basic needs for food and shelter that are necessary for reproducing their own labor. Attention to struggles over the reproduction of migrant women’s labor at the HIP generates insights into the practices of the Ethiopian developmental state. The developmental state actively makes and reproduces cheap labor to attract international capital and support economic growth. The state protects international textile manufacturers from the burden of reproducing the labor that manufacturers rely on for profits. The case of the HIP is a necessary complement to recent scholarship on urban Africa that has focused overwhelmingly on the informal economy. The precarious nature of factory work leads some young women to search out stability with small scale, often informal, entrepreneurial work, a process that disrupts conventional narratives of economic development. The complex relationship between wage labor and self-employment suggests possibilities for pro-poor policies that go beyond reproducing labor for international manufacturers.