“Time is Running Out”: High-Tech Investments, Skill Demands, and State Responses in Costa Rica

• In Event: 20481 - Section on Sociology of Development Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 3. Markets & Economic Development

Abstract

This article examines the limits of state policy-making capabilities in the context of globalization, focusing on Costa Rica as a case study. While much of the literature suggests that globalization diminishes state power, particularly in peripheral countries, Costa Rica demonstrates how a small, latecomer country can navigate these pressures to enhance its position within the international division of labor. Specifically, Costa Rica has strategically entered the global knowledge economy by attracting multinational high-tech companies, aiming to create skilled labor opportunities rather than participating in a “race to the bottom.” However, this strategy has led to growing claims of skills shortages and increasing demands to recruit foreign skilled labor, presenting a dilemma: the state must reconcile its goal of fostering a productive workforce to support capitalist accumulation with the challenges of addressing internal issues of unemployment, poverty, and inequality. This article revisits theories of state autonomy and situates immigration law within the logics of the capitalist state, specifically regarding the new challenges posed by globalization and the knowledge economy. It argues that globalization does not necessarily undermine state autonomy. Rather, Costa Rica’s experience demonstrates how small, peripheral countries can exert a degree of autonomy by shaping policies that support a high-tech mode of accumulation driven by foreign direct investment. However, the state’s policy-making capabilities in skills sourcing are constrained by both international forces and internal social pressures. In this context, immigration law emerges as a resolution to the fundamentally irresolvable conflict of fostering capitalist accumulation for a small state while grappling with its limitations in addressing internal inequality and external pressures.

Author

• Daniela Mia Campos Ugaz, University of Wisconsin-Madison