HAVING IMMIGRANTS DO THE SCUT WORK? DO THEY THINK THEY'RE AMERICANS?:

'Privatising' the peace process (Jon Leyne, 5/01/06, BBC News)

Businessmen like Mr Imran have helped produce a huge expansion in Jordanian exports to the United States.

They now stand at just over US$1bn a year.

There is just one small problem. Almost all of the factories set up under the scheme are foreign-owned. And most of the workers are foreign as well.

At the factory I visited, it was a veritable United Nations.

On the sewing machine are workers from India, Taiwan or Bangladesh. In the canteen, a stream of Sari-clad women queue up for lunch - ferociously hot curry.

This is truly globalisation in action - at one desk a Sri Lankan woman operates a Japanese sewing machine, which was made in China for a Pakistani company to export clothes to the United States.

It is easy to forget this factory is actually in Jordan, and easier still to question what benefit comes to Jordan.

In this workplace, less than a third of the workforce are Jordanian - who congregate around jobs seen as more prestigious.

Yet this is a country where poverty and unemployment are major problems.

"People say there is unemployment in Jordan but when you advertise the vacancies the workers are not available," explained Mr Imran.

"If anyone is desperate to do the work, the jobs are available."