What do life and labour look like inside a walled, largely inaccessible global clothing production site? How do garment workers navigate everyday routines between factories and dormitories in an environment controlled around the clock by their employers? And how does this labour regime shape workers’ mobility, health, and well-being?

Our report Threads of Life: Counter-Mapping Jordan’s Garment Labour Regime from Workers’ Perspectives offers intimate insights into the everyday experiences of labour in the global fashion industry. It builds on three years of ethnographic research, participatory mapping, and collaborative planning with workers. The report centres the stories, voices, and practices of predominantly women workers from Jordan, Syria, Bangladesh, and across South Asia, reinterpreting secluded global production sites from the perspective of those who are compelled to make a living within them.

Join us next Wednesday, 20 May 2026, at 6pm at mmag Foundation (Jebel Amman) for the launch of the report, followed by a roundtable discussion with Dr. Jalal Al-Husseini (IFPO), Dr. Oroub El Abed (Birzeit University), and Dr. Ohoud Kamal (Madaba University), and an informal discussion and reception on the mmag terrace.

Global production increasingly unfolds within enclosed, extra-territorial industrial enclaves—walled zones that are tightly regulated, geographically confined, and socially separated from their surroundings. This is the case of Jordan’s Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZs) for clothing production, including the country’s largest such zone in Al-Hassan (Irbid). Concentrating the nation’s biggest cluster of garment factories exporting primarily to the United States, Al-Hassan today accommodates nearly 30,000 migrant workers—predominantly women recruited from across South Asia—who live in employer-provided dormitories within and around the industrial zone. This presentation looks behind the concrete walls of Al-Hassan to illuminate the hidden labour sustaining the “Made in Jordan” label found on American sports and outdoor apparel.

Join us for an evening of discussion and reflection as we present our counter-mapping project with garment workers in Jordan’s industrial zones. This event marks a collaboration between Invisible Workers and 10 Tooba Applied Research on the Built Environment, bringing together social science researchers and architects, exploring the intersections of labour, migration, and spatial justice.

How can we build a thriving, ethical, and sustainable garment industry in the UK - one that works for businesses and for workers?

Join us on 6 November 2025 at Highfields Community Centre, Leicester for an interactive day of research, dialogue, and action on fair work and supply chains in the UK garment industry.

Go behind the scenes of Jordan’s clothing and footwear industry with a preview presentation and discussion of our findings from counter-mapping activities with the sector’s workers at two of the largest production zones, Al-Hassan (Irbid) and Ad-Dhulayl (Zarqa). The Invisible Workers team presents project findings in collaboration with partners 10 Tooba.

The Invisible Workers team invites you to join a creative workshop on Body Mapping as Method.