Globalization and Free Trade Agreements: A Profile of a Nicaraguan Factory Community

Abstract

This study examines a Nicaraguan community 3 years after the signing of the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to learn how families, living in a community constructed near a US-owned factory, maintained resilience under growing negative conditions. These conditions relate to family dislocation, loss of support systems, lack of childcare, safe water, and food security, in addition to labor injustices. Although maintaining relatively high scores on a baseline resilience test, these families and others like them in Central America, demonstrate a struggle for survival in a globalized context.

Keywords:

• free trade
• Nicaragua
• community development
• globalization
• resilience

Acknowledgments

We thank the Research Council of Winthrop University for funding this study. We also thank the residents from Nicaragua who made this work possible.