Disciplining production and reproduction in special economic zones beyond China: migrant women and dormitory labour regimes in India and Uganda

This article examines the gendered dynamics of dormitory labour regimes (DLRs) within special economic zones (SEZs) beyond China, focusing on rural-urban migrant women in India and Uganda. It positions the DLR as an increasingly global mode of migrant labour control, informed by China’s SEZ model, where dormitory housing became integral to managing a transient, predominantly female, migrant workforce. Based on qualitative fieldwork in two SEZs, the article examines how social reproduction – encompassing biological, daily and intergenerational renewal of labour – is exploited, disciplined and externalized under these regimes. In India, a Chinese-style SEZ modelled on a Chinese industrial park imposes stringent hostel systems that restrict women’s mobility and sexual autonomy, and facilitate deferred marriage to meet both familial and production needs. In Uganda, a China-associated SEZ imposes dormitory accommodation on women who migrate to support left-behind children, embedding reproductive responsibilities within transnational circuits of accumulation. Both cases reveal adaptations of China’s DLR that entangle production and reproduction, extending employer control into women’s daily lives while displacing longer-term reproductive costs onto rural households. This comparative analysis highlights the significance of gendered social reproduction in sustaining SEZ labour systems, and shows how specific cultural, economic and institutional contexts influence the local translation of workplace-residence regimes. It argues for renewed attention to the reproductive dimensions of gendered labour exploitation in SEZs, urging that insights drawn from China’s experience be more systematically applied to understanding contemporary global configurations of migrant labour control.