Harnessing Labour Migration for Export-Oriented Development? Migrant Labour Regimes, State Developmental Strategy and Geopolitical Economy in the Context of Jordan's Apparel Export Industry

Recent years have seen the revived use of geopolitical economy as a tool to dissect development strategy as product of power dynamics and struggle between social groups within and beyond states, particularly in combination with examinations on industrialisation through global production network (GPN) integration. In parallel, a burgeoning scholarship on labour regimes focusses on the contested nature of labour processes in global production, and development outcomes related to struggle over industrial relations on multiple scales. Combining these sets of literature, a research gap however remains on the question how the contested formation of migrant labour regimes is related to state developmental strategy and, subsequently, export-oriented development trajectories. Thus, this paper seeks to explore how migrant labour regimes articulate, or are articulated by, state developmental strategy in the context of GPN integration, geopolitical economy, migration governance and labour agency. As a case study, it draws on the case of Bangladeshi migrant workers in Jordan’s apparel export industry, in combination with examining geopolitical relations along the GPN and transnational migrant labour regime in question. Hence, this paper explores the geopolitical dimensions of export-oriented industrialisation through apparel production in Jordan as based on preferential trade integration between Jordan and the US, as well as contested transnational labour governance mechanisms spanning the migratory corridor between Bangladesh and Jordan. It aims to present first empirical findings stemming from semi-structured interviews with participants from firms, state bodies, international organisations, and migrant workers.