MADE AMERICAN
MADE AMERICAN or American Made? That was my first thought when I read those very words imprinted on the cover of a magazine.
I was on a Delta flight from California to Japan making my way back home to Saipan two months ago when I noticed the “Made American” text across the front cover of a magazine peeking out of the seat pocket. It was the October 2014 issue of the SKY Delta Magazine with the “incomparable” fashion icon and philanthropist Ralph Lauren on the cover with a nice, big “Made American” mark stamped front and center.
Though one would expect this caught my attention because of my liking for fashion and of course, good eye for handsome men..(Ralph Lauren still one of the most handsome American men ever)…my mind, on the contrary, was not so sexy at all and instead was on SWEATSHOPS and ABCs.
Sweatshops? I suppose it was the image of both Ralph Lauren and of “American Made” on the same page that triggered thoughts of the once upon a time lines of Chinese garment workers walking hand in hand along the dusty roadsides of my homeland of Saipan. This was a common sight as far back when I was in elementary school and all the way into the early 2000s when I moved back home after graduating from college. Bula Chinese guihi na tempu! That’s Chamorro for “Plenty Chinese back in those days!”
“Made in the USA” labeled brand named apparel were the Commonwealth’s major export product and was a billion dollar industry in the 1990s. Booming times for us back then, thanks to the Commonwealth’s tariff-free and unrestricted access to U.S. markets and of course, thanks to our once upon a time exemption from U.S. federal immigration and minimum wage laws.
Interestingly, Saipan-based garment factories were producing clothing for some of the nation’s most famous apparel companies and clothing outlets including Tommy Hilfiger, The Gap, and yes, Ralph Lauren’s Polo line as well. Other brand names and apparel companies that Saipan factories produced apparel for also included Wal-Mart, J. Crew Group, Liz Claiborne, J.C. Penny, Lane Bryant, and the Warnaco Group, to name a few.
Sadly, it would be the images of these same garment factories and foreign workers sweating, sewing, and assembling packages of brand named clothing for long hours, often seven days a week and hardly ever compensated fairly for their hard work that most Americans would remember Saipan by.
There were well over 30 foreign-owned garment factories in my island homeland in the 1990s and with it came over 15,000 foreign contract workers, mainly from China, almost overnight. Because of the Commonwealth’s two main labor intensive tourism and garment industries, the government brought in foreign contract workers primarily from the Philippines and China because we didn’t have the population of locals to meet the workforce needs but also because locals didn’t want to take on jobs that paid so low.
Though the garment industry created the boon to the local economy back in the 1990s with its million and sometimes billion dollar a year export of famous brand names like Ralph Lauren’s Polo line to the U.S. mainland, it would be this same industry that tainted the Commonwealth’s good American name and image, overshadowing the beauty, hospitable local people and significant and rich history; branding it instead with that of sweatshops, corruption and labor abuse and to top it off, tying the islands to the infamous lobbyist Jack Abramoff who was paid by the Commonwealth’s government and of course, special interest garment factory giants to keep the islands’ minimum wages down and our immigration system from becoming federalized.
Unfortunately for the Commonwealth’s economy, most of the over 30 garment factories eventually closed down, with the last factory closing its doors in 2009. This was due in part to the class action suits by unpaid
garment workers and primarily due to the 2005 implementation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements that liberalized trade in garments and textiles.
Moreover, the Commonwealth’s minimum wage and immigration system eventually got federalized in 2007 and 2009, respectively, and the law eventually also caught up with the notorious Jack Abramoff who got convicted for conspiracy to bribe public officials, fraud and tax evasion and of course, whose ties to the Commonwealth was also highlighted.
Today, majority of the garment factories remain abandoned, vandalized and have become the island’s eye sore and harborage for rodents and trash. No more are the lines of factory workers by the roadsides and though the Commonwealth remains dependent on foreign contract workers, we now follow U.S. immigration laws and USCIS calls the shots now as to who, when and how many foreigners can stay, work and visit our islands.
So what’s up with the ABCs? Though you won’t find the lines of garment Chinese workers walking along the roadside these days, what you will find are pregnant Chinese women during odd hours of the day walking in the villages with their Chinese assistant hand in hand.
Ironically, it was under the U.S. federal immigration’s watch when this became the new normal of our village roadsides. There was a baby boom by Chinese tourists in Saipan. Again not positive news for Saipan, this new kind of tourism industry made its way to the island, making national news sometime in 2013 and coining the acronym “ABC,” which stood for “American Born Chinese.”
In fact, it was ABC News that did the investigative report on-island. ABC News reported that an underground tourism industry in China were selling packages to pregnant Chinese women to travel as tourists to Saipan to give birth to U.S. citizen babies. According to the report, there was a “35 fold” increase in ABCs in the island comparing “8 ABCs in 2009 to 282 in 2012.”
So yes, though the Commonwealth government screwed up enforcing its labor and immigration laws for thousands of foreign workers and eventually losing control over its immigration system; well, actually also in part due to the 9/11 events and new U.S. homeland security laws, one should still question the effectiveness of our federal homeland security policies when applied to the territories.
Ironically, the over 15,000 Chinese contract workers who were under the Commonwealth’s watch came and left the islands after making “American Made” clothing but under the U.S. federal government’s watch, hundreds of ABCs were “Made American” and have left back to China.
