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MOST OF US HAVE HEARD ABOUT LATIN American "sweatshops," where you'll find women stitching $30-shirts for $1 a day, or Asian "export processing zones," where you'll see workers bolting $1,000-computers for $2 a day--benefits not included. But not many people have noticed the recent, phenomenal growth of another industry. Call it the digital maquiladora.
A spin-off of the telecommunications boom is the global call-centre industry, which includes everything from the lowly telemarketing operation to the multi-tasked call centre that serves customers by phone, internet, email and fax. Labour costs account for 50% to 80% of the total cost of running a call centre, because companies have to hire 500 to 1,000 people to work in one building. As a result, many call centres are located in low-wage countries in Asia--or in rural Canada.
Rural...