This week, we were given the opportunity to speak with Dr. Miriam Dreissen, author of Tales of Hope, Tastes of Bitterness: Chinese Road Builders in Ethiopia. She was an incredibly well-spoken person with perspectives that I found particularly interesting because Dr. Dreissen is trained as an anthropologist. Reading her book gave a great background for our conversation, and I greatly enjoyed seeing the evolution of her research from her time in Ethiopia to today.
Reading her book, I became most interested in the labor and power relations between Chinese and Ethiopian workers. Accounts of peer-to-peer, authoritative, and personal relationships truly brought the book to life. I wanted to gauge her opinion on the way in which Chinese mid-management views their Ethiopian workers, and especially how race and class play into that relationship. Being that Dr. Dreissen is an anthropologist, her background in cultural relativism and intercultural patterns allows her a unique perspective on the two factors interplay between foreign management and local employee.
Dr. Dreissen informed us that since her research in the early 2010s, relations have greatly improved in the construction sector because of the formalization of labor relations by the court. She explains that courts have forced interactions that may have not been present before, such as management having to sit and listen, undisturbed, to the plight of the workers. Lawyers and translators are employed to maintain the civility of the situation. Dreissen attributes the improved relations to not only this, but a new, more culturally-aware generation beginning to take over.
This change in discourse seems to bring a brighter future toward continued improvement between Chinese enterprises and their workforce.
Tim Oakes
So, how DO Chinese mid-management view Ethiopian workers? And how has that view changed (has it changed) since Driessen’s book was written? (and note the spelling 🙂 – it would be great to hear a bit more of her views here.