Asian Garment Workers Sewing American Clothing in Jordan

Ever wondered why Nike, Adidas or American Eagle sports and outdoor clothing are made in Jordan? While Jordan - as a small, largely landlocked country in the Middle East - is not typically thought of as a major clothing producer, an American Free Trade Agreement attracted the global garment industry over two decades ago. Today, around 80,000 workers are employed in clothing factories that are clustered in secluded industrial zones (mudun sina’iyah) across the country. Over two thirds of these workers are international migrants, living in dormitories set beside the factories. Our research team has investigated the lives and labour of women garment workers in Jordan’s clothing industry since 2023. Katharina Grüneisl, lead researcher in Jordan, here introduces our field site.

All photos ©Grüneisl 2023 Jordan

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In Jordan, the export-oriented garment industry is mainly concentrated in three industrial zones, Al-Hassan (Irbid), Tajammoat (Sahab) and Ad-Dhulayl (Zarqa), the entrance of which is pictured here. These industrial zones were created in the end of the 1990s as so-called Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZs), as part of an American policy aimed to foster economic integration through Israeli-Jordanian joint ventures in the context of the 1994 peace accords.

Today, most of the garment factories located in these industrial zones produce synthetic clothing for US brands, benefitting from a free trade agreement (JOFTA) – signed in 2001 and fully entered into force in 2010 – that exempts apparel made in Jordan from import tariffs in the United States. The majority of garment producers located in Jordan are multi-national Asia-headquartered firms, and many of them operate production units in several countries.

75% of garment workers in Jordan are migrant workers, and 25% are Jordanian, a quota imposed by the Ministry of Labour since 2012. The vast majority of workers come from South Asia, most importantly Bangladesh and India, and over 70% of workers in the garment sector are young women. Migrant workers live in dormitories, like the ones pictured here, within or right adjacent to the industrial zones and the rent is directly deducted from their monthly salaries.

Our research in Jordan examines garment workers’ priorities and concerns regarding health and well-being, with a focus on gendered perceptions and experiences. Beyond an assessment of access to health services, occupational health and safety and social protection, we interrogate the broader impact of factory work, but also of living routines in the secluded industrial zones and of migration experiences, on workers’ physical and mental well-being.

Most workers eat at least one meal a day in the factory canteen, and migrant workers have the cost for catering automatically deducted from monthly wages. As garment workers are paid below the national minimum wage (230 JD/month), they routinely supplement wages through overtime work and often remain on their machines for more than 60 hours a week (the legal maximum). As work times fluctuate with production levels, migrant workers’ lives are dominated by hyper-intensive and unpredictable rhythms that leaves little time for reproductive activities like cooking, let alone leisure activities or a social life.

Friday is the only weekly holiday for garment factory workers and it transforms the industrial zones and their surrounds, as thousands of workers flock to the markets to go shopping, frequent Asian restaurants, or meet colleagues and friends. Next to the Ad-Dhulayl industrial zone, an inconspicuous street (pictured here) has turned into what locals call Souk Al-Bengal (the Bengali market). On a stretch of only 500 meters, a mix of Jordanian, Yemeni, Pakistani and Bangladeshi traders offer local and Asian consumer goods, cooked food and fresh produce, including South Asian vegetables and fruit that are difficult to find elsewhere on the Jordanian market. Permanent shops are joined by mobile vending stalls and street vendors on Friday, and a unique mix of Arabic, Hindi, Bangla and Sinhala forms the soundscape of market negotiations.