Transactions of Japan Society of Kansei Engineering
Online ISSN : 1884-5258
ISSN-L : 1884-0833
Original Articles
Mobility Patterns of Migrant Tailors in the Apparel Export Industry of Delhi, India
Kaoru KAWANAKA
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Keywords: Mobility, Apparel, Delhi
JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

2018 Volume 17 Issue 1 Pages 63-69

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Abstract

This paper examines the migratory flows and skill levels of tailors within the apparel export industry in Delhi, India. Tailors in Delhi are said, by Mezzadri (2008), to be in an unsettled labour condition, which was accelerated by industrial policies and trade liberalization, leading to the informalisation of the labour force in India. Yet little is known about the migrant labourers themselves and their choices with regards to their work. Moreover, the export production needs to secure skilled human resources, especially for tailoring process to make value-added apparel products. Here the question arises: how is it possible for the ‘unsettled’ and ‘informalised’ tailors to produce export-quality value-added products? My analysis, from daily wage data, reveals four types of migratory flows for workers; short, medium, seasonal and long term. I argue that there is a migration-embedded process of skill formation and skill sharing among tailors based on interpersonal relationships that enables new entries of unskilled labourers as well as formation of skilled labourers.

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© 2017 Japan Society of Kansei Engineering
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