A reserve army of labour offshore

The classic marxist analysis of capitalism argues that maintaining a surplus labour capacity prevents labour costs from rising.

Offshoring raises fears of increased unemployment but, to some extent, replaces it as a means of controlling labour costs in developed economies. This is how countries such as India and China have enabled a period of low inflation with economic growth in the USA and UK, not just by reducing the cost of goods and services, but also by exerting downward pressure on wages and reducing the power of trade unions.

Poverty, as well as wealth, is becoming globalised. The impact of globalisation on wealth is complex: it seems that inequalities are being magnified within all countries, but the gap between national economies may be narrowing. Access to English may be a contributing factor.

As many developed countries become the destination for migrants, the ethnic mix is changing and with it fears of the erosion of national identity, as represented in a shared national language and values.

Anxiety is growing about what appears to be the increasing separateness of some ethnic communities.

In cities in North America and western Europe, it may not be necessary to be fluent in the national language in order to find work or obtain access to key services, including shopping, healthcare and voting.

Ethnic communities may be sufficiently large to be self-sustaining and public services increasingly cater for linguistic minorities.

There is another side to such separate, parallel lives. In premodernity, there was little movement of individuals. Aside from periods of mass migration, only particular classes travelled: some kinds of trader, explorer, soldiers, entertainers, scholar-monks. In modernity, travel became easier as technology improved. European empires involved much coming and going, and emigration to the new colonies. During wartime, large numbers of people came into contact with new cultures and languages. But by and large, once individuals and families moved, they also moved on, leaving behind old relationships and starting a new life and identity.

We now live in a world in which migrants do not have to break connections with friends and family to begin the generations-long process of assimilating to a new identity. Not only is it possible to retain close contact with the ‘home’ community, on a daily basis via email and telephone, it is also possible for people to read the same newspapers as those being read in the community they have left, watch the same television programmes on satellite television, or borrow the same films on DVD.

Furthermore, we can see with the perspective of the 21st century that patterns of emigration are now reversable. Chinese or Indian immigrants who intended to make new lives in America – even adopting citizenship – may none the less return to their native countries, bringing with them young families who did not grow up there.

Social network ties which were broken in modernity – it was assumed forever – are everywhere becoming reconnected. The main leisure use of the internet is said to be family genealogy. Families and communities which were separated generations ago by emigration are finding each other once again. Third generation immigrants in English-speaking countries are often keen to learn the heritage languages of their grandparents, creating an important new motivation for foreign language learning amongst ethnic minority communities in the UK and USA.

Internet sites such as ‘Friends Reunited’ allow people who were at school together, or who worked together, to make contact again. Ties of affiliation are being reconnected, helping to create a different texture to society: one which is more dispersed and diasporic and less dependent on geographic proximity for close network ties.

English is at the centre of many globalisation mechanisms. Its future in Asia is likely to be closely associated with future patterns of globalisation.

Instruction:After almost every text, the first question you should ask is an overview questionabout the main idea, main topic, or main purpose of the text. Main idea questionsask you to identify the most important thought in the text, the main idea or topic of apassage.

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