Migrations de travail, globalisation et politique.Les Zones industrielles qualifiantes(QIZ) de Jordanie

GLOBALISATION, INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION AND POLITICS: THE CASE OF QUALIFYING INDUSTRIAL ZONES (QIZS) IN JORDAN.Studies have illustrated the interdependence between migration movements and the far-reaching politico-economic revolution experienced nowadays by most developing countries: a switch from an unproductive to a privatised and liberalised economy, the opening of capital and attraction of FDIs as well as the introduction of productive, export-led and labour-intensive activities, that of the manufacturing industry and, especially, that of the textile and garment sector, for instance. In the context of post-1999' QIZ compounds in Jordan, we show that the implementation of these economic measures, as well as of the political choices underlying them, quasi-structurally depend on the attraction of Asian immigrant manpower. This process allows for Jordan's anchorage into a "de-territorialised" worldwide network of trade, subcontracting as well as manpower import and export, and for the quick implementation of drastic economic measures of liberalisation. However, the Jordanian population, though it suffers from high unemployment rates, does not benefit from the economic and employment reform process, a situation which illustrates the notion of "liberal paradox". Moreover, these reforms avoid the political sphere, as this new class of workers enjoys neither political nor social rights. The "mobility of labour and capital" thus crystallises, on the Jordanian ground, all the political stakes of shifting from a rent-based to a productive economic system, even though it proved one of the instruments of the transition process.